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You know, Trump, Trump still talks about how he made us rich with tariffs. We are getting rich on customs duties. How can we get rich from our own taxes? I mean, you can't get to prosperity by taxing yourself. Because how can you get rich on tolls that you, in fact, pay yourself? It's like I'm giving myself a blood transfusion from my right arm to my left.
This does n't make me bleed any more. Mhm. Yes. Yes. Yes, this is kind of crazy. Uh, so Peter, what do you think about this? No, of course not. Well, of course not. I mean, how are they even going to reimburse you ? Yes. Yes. It would be a monumental task for companies to issue refunds. Aha. Yes. Because customers didn't necessarily pay the duties themselves.
They simply paid a higher price because of these tariffs. Mhm. Uh, but in cases where Americans paid duties directly, they could get a refund. I mean, if you imported something yourself. As I just paid the toll . I talked about this on my podcast. I had to buy a part for my European- made hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
So, they sent it to me via FedEx. And the day after I received the package , I received an invoice from FedEx for 10% duty. Yes. And now it's only 10%, but it's such a duty. So FedEx sent me a bill. Now, if it was one of those reciprocal duties that I paid, you know, I could get a refund. But the most interesting thing about this moment was that it was 10%.
But FedEx charged me an additional fee to process the customs payment. So the total increase I paid was not 10%. It amounted to 16.5%. So, I actually paid a lot more than the toll itself. You know, Trump's words: "Oh, Americans won't have to pay tariffs." Trump says America is getting rich on tariffs.
But you can't achieve prosperity by taxing yourself. Ultimately, tariffs are paid for through higher prices. It's like transfusing blood from the right arm to the left. You don't create more blood . And even refunds would be difficult, because consumers often pay duties indirectly through higher prices.
Peter Schiff gives a real-life example. He imported the part from Europe, and FedEx charged him 10% duty . But FedEx also added a handling fee, which increased its total additional costs to 16.5%. So, Americans are not avoiding paying duties. They may end up paying customs duties and additional costs on top of them.
I had to pay more than the customs duty because they charged me a customs clearance fee in addition to the customs duty itself . Mhm. But the European company paid nothing. FedEx didn't send them an invoice. They sent me the bill. You know, Trump still talks about how he made us rich with tariffs. We are getting rich on customs duties.
How can we get rich off our own taxes? I mean, you can't achieve prosperity through taxes. Because how can you get rich on duties that you yourself pay? It's like giving yourself a blood transfusion from your right arm to your left. This does n't make me bleed any more. Mhm. Yes. Yes. Well, I think, you know, it's a perfect storm for commodities right now.
Prices will just skyrocket. It is not just fiat currency depreciation and de-dollarization that will fuel commodity markets. But now there is a real investment boom associated with artificial intelligence. And the trend in AI is about replacing labor with capital. So instead of hiring workers, companies will use AI and robots to do this work.
Well, to make AI and robots work, it takes a lot of energy to power that intelligence. People, you know, don't need that much energy. We just need food, right ? And, you know, some sleep. But AI needs a lot of energy to, you know, function. And, of course, if we're going to build data centers to power computing, we need not only energy, but also raw materials to create all of this.
Especially if we're going to make robots. Robots require even more raw materials than computers themselves. So there is a huge demand for all this energy and metals. And we don't have the capacity to provide this. And therefore, we will have to actively invest in energy infrastructure and the mining industry.
And in mining, you know, you first have to find resources. You can't just say: we need more copper. Okay, let's start digging. You can't just start digging. You first have to find where to dig. And then it takes a long time to get the mine into production, even if you find copper . You know, to get it out of the ground to the point where it can be used, uh , you know, it's years.
So prices will simply increase significantly. There's just nothing you can do here. Both, and interest rates will increase significantly. Because there are many companies, think about it. Large hyperscalers were big buyers of Treasury bonds. They had a lot of cash, and they were buying Treasury bonds.
They don't do that anymore . They have already spent their cash and now they are borrowing more. They compete with the government to borrow money. Uh, so there is a huge demand for borrowed funds from governments and the private sector. So, interest rates are rising. And higher interest rates are also built into prices.
Because if I'm a businessman and I have to pay higher interest rates, it's just another expense, like rising prices for raw materials, or, you know, labor, taxes, insurance, or whatever. Uh, so there is a lot of pricing pressure. And we have this huge debt, a $ 40 trillion national debt, growing by more than $ 3 trillion a year.
We are currently spending about $1.2 trillion or more on interest on the national debt, probably even more. It's just a moving target. And there will be even more if the Fed actually follows through on its threats, right, and raises rates.
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