Discover how five U.S. states are authorizing transactional gold and silver, enabling citizens to save and spend vaulted metal with modern debit cards. Kevin Freeman, Mike Carter, and guest Laurie Bolton outline bipartisan legislative momentum, state-level protections, and practical implementation. Learn why “trust, taxes, and taking” make state authorization essential, and how tools like Glint demonstrate seamless real-world use. Get involved via state toolkits, model policy, and updates at TransactionalGold.com.
Kevin Freeman: Pirate Money Radio helps you unpack the economic headlines
Kevin Freeman: Hey, you know, it's been an amazing year for Pirate Money. For those of you unaware, this audience has been a part of history. We launched last year this program at as a weekend program to explain how the American constitution adopted in 1787, will allow you to use gold and silver as money under state authority. No, I'm not talking about panning for gold and taking gold dust to the apothecary to buy a sarsaparilla. but what if you could convert your existing money to gold and silver, hold it as long as you would want and spend it like cash with a debit card? That's what we call pirate money. When we started last year, it was just a dream. This episode, our first one where we aired, it was just a dream, but it was something I thought about for 50 years and I've written about for more than a decade. But now that dream is about to become a reality. It's already passed into law in not one state, but five states. And the prospects for next year are even brighter. To explain this, to help you see how you can benefit from this and find out if your state is included, I'm joined by Mike Carter, our regular co host and, and we'll have a special appearance by a vital team member calling in from Tennessee.
States are still moving forward legislation on transactional gold and silver
So first let me welcome you, Mike.
Mike Carter: Great, to be here, Kevan. It's been an action packed week already, at the state, Financial Officers foundation and more, testimony going forward. Even this year, states are still moving forward legislation on transactional gold and silver. So it's exciting.
Kevin Freeman: It's two weeks in a row. The first week we had at Liberty Auk, we had people from a bunch of different states. And then we were with the treasurers and we were with several treasurers who learned about what we were doing, have been elected to Congress and want to help us in Congress so that we have the, I mean the momentum on this is amazing.
Mike Carter: yeah, we might have to use that with the other legislators we're talking to. You know, if you start moving this forward, you might even get some more visibility and go to Congress after this. Oh, yeah, well, we saw it's a big idea. This is big enough that it does get traction.
Kevin Freeman: We saw Congressman Wriley Moore and I remember, you know, I was on the set of Economic War Room and I get this weird call from the state of West Virginia, man, you know, is this a scam or Did I fail to pay my parking ticket? I don't remember being in West Virginia, but I. So I picked it up and he said, I'm Wriley Moore. And I said, you mean the treasurer Wriley Moore? He said, yeah. and I said, what can I do for you, sir? He said, I got 10 copies of your book on my desk and people keep sending it to me. Why do people keep sending it to me? And I said, well, maybe they want you to read it. He said, I don't have time to read the book. You summarize it for me. Explain it. And I did. I summarized it for. He loved the ideas. Same thing with, Congressman Petronas.
Mike Carter: Yeah. Yeah. Who went from cfo, stepped into this in a big way and says, florida wants to lead with this, but then happened to have an opportunity to say, well, now you could be a congressman. And he did that. We were a little concerned he was gonna lose focus on this, but he stepped into that even as he's running for Congress, saying, we need to make this happen. Yeah, yeah. It was, exciting to see.
Kevin Freeman: It was. So if you wanna learn more about what we're talking about, it's transactional gold. And you can learn more@transactionalgold.com and we have a special guest later who's helped us, really, to build up that website. Legislative toolkits and all the cool things, bells and whistles on a great website. But if you want to learn more, go to transactionalgoal.com and if you want to see how it works.
Glint provides access to gold for modern spending with debit card and mobile app
Well, let me share. support for this program comes from Glint. It's a financial technology service offering with a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access gold holdings for everyday purchases. With Glint, users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in a managed vault at the. At the time of a transaction, gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, manage their account through the Glint app, available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are available@glintpay.com Gold247 Again, that's glintpay.com Gold247 Glint providing access to gold for modern spending. So, hey, we ran into a lot of, legislators and treasurers that use.
Mike Carter: Yeah, legislators. We've been working with legislators, who are state financial officers that we've been working with, others that we'd not met yet. but it was kind of fun to see. even, you know, you just talked a little bit about Glint out there. Like, this is the one with that Glint thing I've heard about. So even Glint, as a technology provider, is catching on, people understanding, you know what, you don't have to go to the grocery store with a token of gold or a chunk of gold and say, this is real. Trust me, and spend it. They're like, it's seamless. It literally works just like this. And so to see, legislators understanding and financial officers understand the legislation, that it's real, because two or three years ago, when we started with this, we were together in Utah when, the, deputy treasurer said, no way. Not going to do this. Don't understand it. Way too complicated. No way. and that's where we started two years ago. and we took them out to lunch and showed them how it worked. It was like, yeah, how do we lead with this? And they're still trying to get it across because of a governor they have there.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it passed. They just got vetoed.
Mike Carter: But now we're seeing state after state say, hey, we want to be a part of it. And even states that, I had a blue state the other day call us up, legislators from there saying, hey, we want to see if we can make this happen in our state. So we're seeing red states, blue states. We're seeing bipartisan support across the board. Very exciting to see them.
Kevin Freeman: Moves me of redfish, blue fish, old fish, new fish, or whatever. Dr. Seuss.
Mike Carter: but.
CBDC is an alternative store of value that functions as m money
Kevin Freeman: All right, so here's. You may be asking the question, why, would we want to do this? I mean, why would I spend my gold? And that a lot of people who even like gold will say, why would I want to spend it? And what we're offering is an alternative store of value that functions as m money. And if it functions as money, it protects you from serious problems like taxation or confiscation or taking, as we call it. And if it's done at the state level, it provides a layer of trust. And that fun part is you mentioned, Treasurer Marlowe Oaks, who I've called America's treasurer. we've had him out here, had him on the show multiple times on the economic war room show. Treasurer Oaks has embraced this fully. And in fact, he was in talking with the government about how do we remove the taxation at the federal level.
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah. With the treasurer. So those types of ideas are moving forward as well. So momentum Everywhere we look out there and, I just, I'm amazed at, you know, how far things have come in these next two years and where it's going to go as we move to this next session.
Kevin Freeman: Well, the reason is the why is that, the Bible demands honest weights and measures. And I've got some examples here. I wrote down Deuteronomy 25, 13, 16, Proverbs 11:1, Proverbs 20:10, Leviticus 19, 35, 36. Literally, God says, I don't like dishonesty in money. A weight and a measure. When you're buying something, in biblical times, it was weighed out in gold or silver versus the weight or measure of the commodity, or if you're buying wheat or bread or whatever. and God says, I don't like dishonesty. And we've seen 91% of our purchasing power diminish over the past 50 years in our lifetimes. dollar only buys a fraction of what it used to buy. But we've got the five undeniable truths. And you share these with the legislators. You want to run through those real fast.
Mike Carter: Just a quick list. Our debt path is unsustainable.
Kevin Freeman: Okay, $38 trillion. I think that's probably. We're up how much?
Mike Carter: A trillion dollars in the last 71 days. Wow, 71 day. Unbelievable. other nations are targeting our currency. so we see that in the economic war that you've been sharing about for years and years out there. But the BRICS nations are.
Kevin Freeman: Yes, our producer Russell and I were, in Moscow, 19 years ago. It was the summer of 2006, and they told us they were going to take down the dollar. So we've seen it ever since then.
Mike Carter: Inflation creates a wealth gap that hurts the poor and will lead to destabilization. I was flying out to Washington D.C. sitting next to a very professional young college student, from Maryland. And she's looking at, we're talking about, she said, this sounds great. She goes, and she looks at the map, she goes with what you just shared with me though, why is it just in the red states? I said, well, it's changing. I said, well, you actually had a blue state reach out to us and we're seeing bipartisan support. But yes, it does answer that wealth gap, and it needs to be in every state.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, the wealth gap is a serious problem. Most people don't understand or realize that. Young people don't see that they have the American dream in front of them. and we need to fix that. And the way to Fix that is with honest money.
Mike Carter: Absolutely. Next one. Governments intend to weaponize currency. Many of our audience members here know very much about CBDC not being them. The government be able to control how we spend our money, where we spend it. Nobody wants that.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. And the treasurers of the major states that we met with, the state financial officers, they're very concerned about this. But that's where the rest of the world is going. If we don't go to gold and silver, we'll be that way also going that direction also in the last one.
Mike Carter: And it's easy to do. Money is changing in major ways and we're seeing new technologies that allow us to make gold and silver transactional.
Kevin Freeman: And that's what we're talking about here. Pirate Money is transactional. Gold and silver. The opportunity for you to use gold and silver is money again, as a store of value, as a means of exchange and as a unit of account. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, I'm excited to introduce you to the amazing lawry from Tennessee.
Kevin Freeman welcomes Laurie Bolton to Pirate Money Radio
Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: And I'm joined by my co host, Mike Carter, plus our special guest from Tennessee. I told you about his amazing friend. I've known her for more than a couple of decades. She's a powerful persuader, she's a trained policy analyst, she's a huge advocate for of transactional gold and silver. And she's a brilliant, dedicated, patriotic lady. And her name is Laurie Bolton. Laurie, welcome to Pirate Money Radio. You know, it's so exciting to have you on. You've been friends, you and your husband have been friends of Marnie's and mine, since our kids were babies and we went to Bible study together. And you know, when you moved, I was very sad about that. But I'm so grateful that you've joined our team here to help bring transactional gold and silver around the world.
Mike Carter: Oh, Lori's been just an incredible asset. in fact, in D.C. i saw the Pentagon and I had to kind of sit back and marvel and say, we got our policy expert who actually spent time working in the Pentagon. That's pretty cool. Thank you, God, for bringing the reality.
Kevin Freeman: We'll call it the War Department now in honor of President Trump. But yes, Laurie, you're just an amazing person. How did you get involved in this? Tell your side of the story.
Laurie Bolton: So my side of the story is I was going to reiterate what you said, that I've known the Freeman's for over 20 years. And we spent many, an evening sitting on our porches talking about politics, and had a few shared birthday parties. and then my husband's work took us to Tennessee. but In October of 2023, Marnie called me out of the blue and said, I think you're supposed to be on our transactional gold Prayer team calls. And it sounded interesting. So I started jumping on those calls, which was great. I learned more about it. And then you all invited me to come to a meeting in Tennessee, in Nashville, because you had a group of legislators you were already working with there, and it was thought that maybe possibly I could get involved, on the Tennessee side and help get that going.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you did, and you became our secret weapon. In fact, the first state that passed it and signed it into law. I mean, we got to give Marlow and Treasurer Oaks and Representative Ivory they're due. They got it passed first in Utah, but not signed into law. But our secret weapon in Arkansas was you, Laurie, were the secret weapon. Mike and I would talk and, you know, bankers would be listening in to what we were saying and everything. And we wouldn't tell them we've got one secret state, we're going to get it passed in before anybody else. And that was our. We wouldn't tell them the name of the state because we knew that, that you were there. How did it feel, to work in Arkansas? Kind of stealthy, under the radar of big states.
Laurie Bolton: It was amazing. It was fantastic. y' all had already laid so much groundwork in other states, so it was something that was known. and truly, I met our two fantastic legislators at, the Pro Family Legislative Legislative network, that previous fall. And I'd started, you know, calling them, following up, offering support, and we just started quietly working, together. And they just did a really good job of smoothing the way ahead of time. So not only did they get it passed, they got it passed unanimously.
Mike Carter: Again, that bipartisan support that comes through there, which is beautiful.
Laurie Bolton: Yes, yes, for sure. And I would say too, I think having the right legislator is important because once they get it, it makes it easier to convey to their colleagues why it's so important. And it can be a difficult concept to understand in the beginning. but yeah, they got it done. And then representative, McAlendon, she went on to get it passed into, ah, an ALEC model policy, which is amazing. So now the other states have a model that's being advocated, by the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you know what I want to jump in here, Laurie, and say, ah, ALEC is great, but the average listener, you may not even know who your state representative is or your state senator. And here is an opportunity that you can pick up if you're, you can go to transactionalgold.com to learn more for more information. and then you can find out if your state's involved or not involved, but you can step up and start a conversation. Laurie, you did great. You were working with Jason, Raipert from national association of Christian Lawmakers, David and Cheryl and Tim Barton, from Pro Family Legislative Network, and David Barton, you know, famous, famous historian. But you assembled an amazing team. And then I've got a picture of you, front and center, with, when we got this signed into law, and Governor Sarah Sanders, which, you know, that's pretty prestigious. We may have President Trump's favorite governor. He likes a lot of governors, but his favorite's gotta be Governor, Sanders, I think.
Laurie Bolton: Yeah, I would imagine so. one thing I would say about the website is that I do have a state page now and people can go to that website and then click on their state. And I try to keep that updated with who I'm working with in those states, the bill numbers, so that they can click right there and find out who's working on this, and get in touch with them.
Kevin Freeman: Well, the average person doesn't think my state legislator is going to make a difference of whether or not my kids go to college or whether or not I'm able to buy that home or have a retirement. But in this case, they do. I mean, we have an, ah, election going on here in Texas right now and they're barking about all sorts of nonsensical things.
Kevin Freeman: One'S calling the other a liar and the other's calling the other a rhino or a different.
Mike Carter: That's politics.
Kevin Freeman: This is an issue that really does make a difference and it is something. Laurie, you've done such a good job of building relationships. When you call up, though, you've called up legislators. I, remember one story where you won somebody so completely over where they were completely opposed to it at the beginning. You met a pfl. I'm not doing that.
Mike Carter: That was at alec. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: Or alec.
Laurie Bolton: Yeah, that was at alec. Yeah. That's my, that's my biggest war story right there.
Kevin Freeman: Well, share it.
Laurie Bolton: Okay. So Mike and I decided to attend alec. We hadn't done that before, and it was an amazing event. this was when representative, McLendon was going to, to run These, her model bill, her model policy, through two task forces, which is what's required to get it passed to be an ALEC model policy. And so Mike had to testify in the tax and fiscal policy. He was there as an expert. That was the first one. And it sailed right through that task. And then he had to head home. So I went to the Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force, where I had a whole passel of legislators, and people asking lots of questions. And this one senator in particular, Senator Lang, who's one of my best buddies now, he was just all against it, wasn't going to hear of it. And so, fortunately, despite that fact, it still passed, in that council, in that task force, because legislators wanted it.
The states really do need to be involved in this, Laurie says
They definitely did. however, later, down in the exhibitor booth, I saw him come through, and, I grabbed a book and I ran up to him and just pretty much accosted him and forced him to have a conversation with me. And, he found out that I lived in Tennessee, and he's bought property here and is retiring here. So then he wanted to know all kinds of other things. And I basically convinced him, Kevan, to read your book. And I said, all the reasons for doing it, why it's important, and why we need state involvement right here in this book. So he promised. I thought he was going to blow me off, but he promised to read it. and he was like, yeah, yeah, get my phone number, you know, follow up. but he wasn't very convincing. Well, not only did he read it, he read it on the way home, on the airplane ride. And he was, you know, breaking down the door, trying to get to somebody who could give him my phone number. And he's just been a huge, passionate advocate for Ohio ever since he even came to our legislative summit, which was amazing.
Mike Carter: And the big objection that he had initially, Laurie, correct me if I'm wrong, was, the states don't need to be involved in this. He wanted everything to be private. And that's often a common objection that we hear from folks. No, no, no. Private business can do it. The states don't need to be involved. but we've got to help, everybody understand that the states really do need to be involved.
Kevin Freeman: They do, from an oversight standpoint, so that you can have trust and, you know, you're not getting ripped off. And the state's gonna guarantee that the gold is audited in the account, that the technology works, and that it's fair for everybody, from a taxes standpoint and by the way we met, Mike and I met with the Treasurer of the United States, the guy that signs the money. Not the Secretary of Treasury, but the Treasurer of the United States, who was from Georgia and was in the Senate with another friend of our senator, Marty Harmonies. And we. And I gave him. He loves the native tribes. And he mentioned that, the treasurer is overseeing the Native American relations with the United States, which is an interesting position. He loves the native tribes. So I ran up and showed him my Cherokee ID and then gave him a copy of the book. And he said, I promise I'll read it. And I heard word today that, he's working now to help us take care of that next problem, which is taxation.
Mike Carter: Yep.
Kevin Freeman: So that money should not be taxed. If you get a dollar bill, and that's dollar bill, you stick it in your wallet and ten years from now, you pull it out and spend it. You shouldn't have to pay a tax for the privilege of having that dollar. and that's the second reason states need to do it. and the third reason is the taking.
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah, let's really hit that. Because if I'm a private business and the state's not authorizing this or doing anything with it, what happens to that private business? And if we have administration says, no, we don't want to do that anymore.
Kevin Freeman: They just take it. And you say, oh, that'll never happen. Except it did happen. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt required every person to cancel any contract they had payable in gold. And they confiscated all of the gold from all, American citizens. And they confiscated. They paid you for it. $20.67, I think. And then within a year, he said, well, it's actually worth 35. He didn't go back and pay anybody extra. They just took the gold. So trust, taxes, and taking are the three reasons the state needs to be involved.
Mike Carter: It's so easy for a federal government to say, oh, this private was, we're going to shut you down. We don't want that. We're going to have this way of doing it. But if a state's backing and behind this legally is tender, it's a whole nother argument. And so that's an important layer of protection for citizens in each state.
Kevin Freeman: Well, let me ask.
Laurie Bolton: My understanding is that the state's gold was. They were the only ones with gold still in their vaults.
Kevin Freeman: They could keep their vaults.
Laurie Bolton: They weren't allowed.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, they could keep their goal.
Mike Carter: I think once the bill was passed in a few states
Well, let me ask you, Laura, you had a. You've seen the difference from when we first started to that legislative summit, and you were, you know, you did such a great job with the legislative summit here at Liberty Hawk. what are the differences that you saw in terms of attitude?
Laurie Bolton: Oh, I think once the bill was passed in a few states, it's just gotten easier. It really is, because now people aren't. They're not unsure, like, ah, this hasn't been done and, and whatever. And I mean, it's. There's like a groundswell now of states that I'm trying to keep up with, quite frankly, to keep it all, you know, I don't want anybody to fall behind or fall through the cracks. So our team is small, but, we're trying to juggle it and manage it. And, we've got really, this summit this time we had. I believe every single person who was at our summit is going to file the bill. And several are filing it early. Several are filing it right now. I've got four bills that I'm working through right now to get the language the best it can possibly be because they're going to file it even before the session starts.
Kevin Freeman: Well, and what I love, too, is you've worked such amazing. I, think it is the best that our model legislation's ever been. In fact, I'm going to go back and rewrite Pirate Money to make, if for no other reason, to get the new updated model in the book because it's so powerful. I loved it.
Mike Carter: And it's clean and simple. The legislation is clean and simple. Everybody can understand it. That makes it easy to get each one of these states m across the finish line.
Kevin Freeman: So you're doing great. Mike, you've been heading this up. And Laura, you just jumped in and just turbocharged.
Mike Carter: No, she's been absolutely amazing. there's so much activity going on now, we can't keep up with it here. And she is our force multiplier that's just built systems and helped really take this to the next level for us. Thank you, Lori.
Kevin Freeman: All right, we're going to need to take another break. When we come back, we're going to talk about implementation. How do we get this in your state if you're not one of the five that has it already? We'll be back with Mike Carter and Larry Bolton after the break.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with Liberty, security and values.
Mike Carter and Laurie Bolton are implementing Pirate Money across the country
Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm joined by Mike Carter and Laurie Bolton, who are on the transactional gold Team implementing Pirate Money. Mike has been my business partner. Laurie's been my friend for more than two decades, and she is genius level. And she has stepped in and said, what do you need? How do you need it? And she's become an invaluable resource, not just to our team, but to states across the country. First name basis with some of the top legislators in America. And I want to point this out. A lot of people just ignore their state legislature. They don't realize how impactful and important it is under the Constitution. And, and here's an example. Can you imagine if your legislator could stand up for you and protect your money so that it wasn't ravaged by inflation, so that it was a store of value that you could keep and pass on to your children, your grandchildren? That would prevent a wealth gap that could threaten our nation, but they can fix that. That could stop the debt bomb at the federal level. I mean, state legislators are very, very powerful. They don't get a lot of praise. but if you can befriend them, get to know them, and give them some good ideas, which, Laurie, that's one of the things you've done. You've made friends. Tell us about the five states where we passed Transactional gold and silver.
Laurie Bolton: So we passed it in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri. Utah, as you mentioned, passed it, but then it was vetoed. So technically it was passed in six.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, Mike, are, those big states?
Mike Carter: Yeah. Well, when we start out, they said, if you could get Texas, everything is always going to follow. If you get Texas. You heard this from Governor DeSantis. Nothing can stop it. And so now what we're seeing is this wave come through, and Lori's built a system out there that makes it easy for legislators to find these tools to access and understand what it is. But I think equally important is a chance for, our listening audience members to say, do I have it in my state yet? How do I stay in the know in terms of what's going on? and then how do I reach out maybe to my state legislator and let them know if they're already working their state, how do I support them? How do I find a state legislator to get this in my state? Those are all things that we're making that easy next step for people.
Kevin Freeman: Now, how do I volunteer to help you make this happen in other states? You know, we had a great volunteer group that went down to San Antonio, Texas, and Laura, you lived in San Antonio for a while, and we parked it, at, your relative's house. How many cases of pirate booty from Sam's Club?
Mike Carter: And we took over the house. Let me just say I went to the house with her. And it was almost embarrassing because the whole house looked like a warehouse. regular warehouse in her living room, dining room and kitchen filled with the.
Kevin Freeman: Pirates, which is a great spot.
Mike Carter: Pirate booty, all kinds of other, tools, merchandising, brochures, you name it, it was all there.
Kevin Freeman: Go ahead.
Laurie Bolton: The food trucks never showed up, so people kept coming by to get pirate booty. And it was great because just gave us more and more opportunities to talk to a wider variety of people.
Kevin Freeman: And among your other titles, I should put Facebook Marketplace Expert, because you found a treasure chest trunk on Facebook Marketplace or something like that. And so it looked. I mean, that booth was unbelievable. I was just. Marty and I went to the, Republican Women national or Texas Federation of Republican Women. I was one of their keynote speakers just last week. And while we were there, people kept coming up. I saw you at the convention. You had that booth with all the pirate booty. And we were famous. Our booth was shoved in a corner, and yet it was most trapped. We had chocolate gold coins. You got those ordered somewhere. And we were giving out chocolate gold coins, which. Give Marnie her credit. She said, you got to hand out chocolate coins. And we had so many people and so much fun. We had an Airbnb. Anyway, we've made this a blast to literally change the monetary system.
Mike Carter: Got it in the top 10 legislative priorities. And in Texas, where we still had some pushback, that, was the thing, I think, that put it over the finish line because it was. There was so much grassroots support, there was legislative support, but that overcame any pushback we got from maybe some of the bankers that don't understand it. We have other bankers that do and are stepping into this now and saying, how do I be a part of this thing? So great things ahead.
Kevin Freeman: Oh, absolutely. And then we just got back from the State Financial Officers foundation, where we met with the treasurers and their big thing. You go to their sfof.com website and you'll see up at the top of it.
You tend to think now that debanking maybe has gone away
Have you been debanked?
Mike Carter: Yeah. Ah, yeah. You tend to think now that, well, debanking maybe has gone away. I mean, first people, it's like Democrats. Remember, it was a Saturday Night Live. They talked about debank. I was like, what's that? That doesn't even exist. Then they found out it did exist. Now Trump's administration appears to be trying to make that Go away. But we're one administration away from it. Coming right back again.
Kevin Freeman: Well, Chuck, Grassley's point. Grassley's pointed out that 400, Republicans were targeted that were Trump connected to be debanked or to steal their banking information or whatever. Charlie Kirk, when he was here, the late, great Charlie Kirk, when he was at the economic war room, he said, there's a phrase that's common. It is. That's not happening. But it's good that it is. There aren't people coming across our border illegally, but it's good that they are, because by doing so they're able, you know, to escape oppression. You know, we're not having mass, abortions, but it's good that we are because, the population's too great. You know, so they. They hit all these issues and they, they lied about the debate. It's not happening. But it's good that it is because these criminals shouldn't be allowed to have bank accounts. Well, if you have transactional gold and silver offered by a state that's protecting your rights, you don't have to worry about being debanked.
Mike Carter: Yeah. Yeah. And I can tell you the overall enthusiasm. And you were there as well, Kevan, amongst the treasurers, as they understood this, many of them have already heard that, their legislators were working this to move it forward. and some still had some questions, but I heard them even saying, well, is this the one that has the Glint card? tell me about how that works again. And then the other questions we were getting, well, am I going to have to buy gold out of the state budget? And once they understood how simple this was and how it's pretty much plug and play, lots of enthusiasm, across all the states that were there.
Kevin Freeman: And how does that make a difference for you, Laurie? when you're talking to a representative and you said, oh, by the way, the treasurer, is a part of, or the auditor is a part of the sfof. And they've kind of. I'm not saying the organization's embraced it, but those members have embraced it. I didn't get a rejection from a single one that we talked to at the conference. That's my second time, to speak to their conference. How does that make a difference for you? Do they say what's. Did they ask you?
Laurie Bolton: It makes a big difference. and part of that is. And Mindy McLendon in Arkansas understood this. She went ahead of time and did the pre work that you need to do to get everyone on Board, including, the Chief Financial Officer, the treasurer's office in Tennessee. We have meetings next week with several. The treasurer, the office, and the department of, financial Institutions, because then it's not a surprise to them. They have time to think about it. They have time to understand it. And I will say, too, all of these visuals that we have now that are easy, these explainer videos that Russell produced that are amazing, and the Glint videos showing how it works, and, Mike, you all go and take people to lunch with your Glint card, and it shows people how easy it is. And I think that takes away a lot of the concern that people have.
What is the biggest objection you get? You win ever over skeptics on anything
Kevin Freeman: What is the biggest objection you get? You win ever over any skeptic on anything. I love to hear you share. I also love to hear you share the gospel, Laurie, because you do such a good job, defending the truth of the gospel as well. but what's the big objection, and how do you answer it?
Laurie Bolton: Well, the biggest objection is what Mike spoke about earlier in that the private industry can already do this. Why do we need it? We don't need the government involved. Sometimes you hear it'll hurt the banks, and occasionally you'll hear that it's unconstitutional. But that's always a complete misunderstanding of some of the definitions of coin, and bullion and money. And so, you know, if I want to answer about unconstitutional, I send them, chapter six and seven of your book. and that's a very good way. I've even done that with lawyers, and it's extremely helpful. I, think one of the things we did at the legislative summit was we talked a lot about the objections that you get from banks and gave them some. Some good talking points about that, because most of the time with bankers, they just don't understand it. And Mike can maybe speak more to that, if you want to get into the details. but that's what we do. And we. We do the trust taxes and taking for why this needs to be done, authorized at the state level, and not just done. I mean, basically, private businesses go out of business. The state of Arkansas, the state of Texas, the state of Florida. They're not going out of business.
Kevin Freeman: Let's hope not. No.
Laurie Bolton: Yeah.
Mike Carter: 80% of the money supply was printed in COVID
Kevin Freeman: All right, so just an example, in 2020, if you took the family out to dinner, and we all had family of four, kids are grown and, you know, married in some cases and so forth, but we all had a family of four, and we wanted to go out to dinner in the year 2020, the four of us. it was, you know, maybe 50 or $60 for a decent meal. Not your fancy sit down meal. Now what's it cost now?
Mike Carter: We're 100 bucks.
Kevin Freeman: 100 bucks. Ah, but if you used gold priced in gold and you bought $100 worth of, or $50 worth of gold back in 2020, that 50 would spend more than 100 today. And so if you'd held your money in the form of gold, you actually wouldn't have any inflation. In fact, you'd have prices a little bit lower, not double.
Mike Carter: Yeah. What was the stat we heard? I think it was, 60% of the new money that, up to 60% of the money supply was printed over the last two years.
Kevin Freeman: Well, 80% of the money supply was printed in those first couple of years of COVID and it did not show up in prices, at first, but eventually it did. And that's the Biden inflation that we saw.
Mike Carter: I thought it was 80%, but that number sounded so unrealistic, I downloaded to 60%. But you think of that. I mean, if you're throwing that much money out that you're just printing, that's not happening with gold. And that's the difference between that factor and gold, you know?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you can't make, 80% of the gold in a couple of years. You can't just create it, you know. So it does come down to money. And there are only three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. Here at, ah, Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in a way promoting liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile Mobile phone company supports the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile, and operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room and Patriot Mobile is available@PirateMoneyRadio.com AFR that's PirateMoneyRadio.com AFR and we've got right now a monetary issue and people are saying my money's not worth as much. And Laurie, you've been out there helping legislators realize at the state level that they can make a difference for their citizens. what is your favorite reaction that you've gotten when you've talked to someone?
Laurie Bolton: Well, I think when the lights come on, they, especially like if I use a visual aid. And it depends, I may explain it differently to a citizen, a concerned citizen, versus a legislator. But I've been talking about this stuff to my grown kids because, you know, you have people in my kids, our kids generation, they talk about, well, we got all these stimulus checks, but they don't really understand that whatever that $4,000 was that they got, they've more than paid that back a bunch of times over in inflation. So to make it understandable. And then you know what I think legislators, I think a lot of people feel demoralized that they can't do anything about it. And now they have a solution.
Kevin Freeman: All right, we do have a solution. And we're gonna have to take a break, but we're gonna carry over with Laurie Bolton and Mike Carter, and we'll be right back talking Pirate Money right after this break.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
Kevin Freeman: How many of you actually know who your state treasurer is
welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, and we've been having a roundtable with Mike Carter and Laurie Bolton. We're talking about all of the efforts that we've had on Pirate Money legislation and then at the State Financial Officers Foundation. And you know what I would challenge? How many of you actually know who the treasurer or the auditor or the comptroller or the chief financial officer is in your state? Sometimes they're appointed, sometimes they're elected. You probably couldn't name them. I know that 10 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to, who is that? But I, lived in Oklahoma. The current treasurer of the state of Oklahoma is Todd Russell. He's become a good friend, spent some good time with him. And you know what? He cares about his citizens. He cares about whether they're being debanked or whether the DEI is causing somebody to lose a job or maybe somebody less qualified to be put in a job. He cares about fiduciary responsibilities of the pensions. If you work for the state, that your pension's being managed properly and not off on some green New Deal agenda. You know, when you see Bill Gates say, oh, you know, climate change isn't as bad as we told you it was going to be, we can manage through that. Here's a new problem to worry about. You realize it was a great climate scam in a lot of cases.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And the state financial officer and the auditors and the comptrollers, all of them are out there. They're good people. They're trying to be accountable for the people's money and what they can do. I love the story that Blaze, and Galaxy, the chief Florida financial officer shared about how do we save property taxes in Florida? So this is a guy again, he's looking out for people's pocketbooks. But he also, on his way out, he said, oh, and I want to make sure we lead on gold, but I'll share this property tax story a little bit. They found that, each of the cities within Florida were not always being accountable with all the tax money they were getting. And so they set up a new organization. I forget the name of the organization, but the acronym for it was fafo, but it's something Florida something, not what you're thinking right now. And, and. And all of a sudden, they went to one city and said, well, we did an audit, and there's $1.8 billion that really can't be accountable for here. We don't think you should be raising taxes. Miami Florida came out, said, hey, we got to raise taxes. We need another $400 million or something to get this done. And they said, oh, well, we probably should come in and audit and see where you're at. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. No, we found the money. We don't need to raise taxes now. So these state treasurers have more power than people realize. But a lot of people don't even know who they are.
Kevin Freeman: Financial accountability, and several of them have gone on to Congress. The treasurer we worked with, Dr. John Fleming in Louisiana, maybe in the United States Senate coming up. they are amazing people, and they care about things. So, Wriley Moore, who's now Congressman Moore, he, cared because in West Virginia, their pension funds appeared to be investing in things designed to end coal and the use of coal in the American energy policy. It's like, why are you investing in that? Or Oklahoma with Treasurer Russ, or Texas, with comptroller. We were investing in things that hurt oil and natural gas, which would destroy our economy. Well, that's insane. Why would you do that? These are good people that are salt of the earth. Many of them are Christians. We had prayers, at every session and meeting, but they're good people, too, in the state legislature. You're finding that as well, aren't you, Laurie?
Laurie Bolton: Yes, definitely. I mean, these people. I didn't realize, even though I worked in government, I worked at the federal government, level, how kind of a thankless job being a state legislator is. I mean, these guys usually, have regular careers, to support their families, and then they go on and spend all this extra time. And many of them that we've met, they don't have any, you know, assistance or support, or any of those things to really carry on the work. They're doing. And many of them pass a ton of bills, so they. They. They really have my admiration.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, they don't make a lot of money, and it's a thankless job. And, you know, Representative, Ivory has told me. He said, yes, I am a public servant. I work for the people in my district. I absolutely do. But he says I get abused all the time. People start yelling at me. You don't walk into a restaurant and start yelling at your server. They're your server. They're serving you. and they work for you, in a sense, because you're going to write their check and give them a tip or whatever. But he said people don't need to be abused. So he has a recommendation for how to show respect, because showing of respect goes a long way, and that's one thing I think you've done. So I watched you, Laurie, from the front of the room when I was speaking or the back of the room when you were speaking here. And same thing with you, Mike. You show the greatest respect to them because they're people, not just because of their office. They deserve respect because they're human beings. And that's a Christian attitude. And I want to applaud you both for carrying Christ in to this effort to wake people up to God's kind of money.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And we're here to serve them. We tell them we have model legislation for you. But this is what's most important with what you hear from your constituents. We're here to help you with the tools to get this basic concept across the finish line. But it's really been a great partnership, and great friendships are being made across the country. and it's been very rewarding to be a part of this. Wow.
Kevin Freeman: And you're generous.
Laurie Bolton: Most definitely.
Mike White: Every state should have a rainy day fund in gold
Kevin Freeman: Such a. Laurie, I want you to get. Take your. You sat down next to somebody, and you're getting ready to pay, in gold. And. And they ask you, what. What are you doing? How would you explain this to them? Put it in your words.
Laurie Bolton: I would just say I, you know, I pay. I use my Glint card. and I say, I. I just tell them I'm going to swipe this MasterCard the same as I would my debit card. It is a debit card, and instead of, you know, paying against a checking account or a savings account, it's my gold account. And I have actual gold in the amount that I've. I've put in my Glint account in the vault, and it is converted to dollars. So really, the. The retailer knows, doesn't know the difference. They're getting dollars. It's converted, I think, at the spot price, and it's easy. And that people just can't believe how easy it is. And then for like, we're younger people. What I was trying to explain earlier is that I don't, unfortunately, I don't think a lot of younger people understand basic economics very well. So sometimes I do a little educating with them about that and explain to them why this would be helpful to them. it's concerning that people in the next generation, don't understand money. And they're really, they've been shortchanged by all of this debasing of the currency. I mean, they cannot afford to live because their dollars just don't go nearly as far as they used to.
Kevin Freeman: You know, And I think this is. We focus a lot on the spending because it's easy to demonstrate. But when I talk to a young person, I say, what, if your boss said you can be paid in gold, silver, or US Dollars, and you can pick the amount and you can adjust it monthly if you want to, would you like that?
Mike Carter: I've not, absolutely.
Kevin Freeman: One person say, no, no, I don't want that.
Mike Carter: You know, and I always like to refer to it too, as, you know, the central banks all have their rainy day funds. The states have them. Our government, well, maybe our government doesn't have them, they just print money, but we don't have that luxury. But if we can each have our own rainy day fund of gold set aside just in case something happens out there, just in case there's something inflationary, just in case something else is there.
Kevin Freeman: They're going to Zimbabwe. I know it.
Mike Carter: I don't even have time for Zimbabwe. I could, but Zimbabwe is a great story. in terms of what did my Zimbabwe friend say who lives here in Texas now, who said, you've got to get this passed? he said, they said hyperinflation would never happen until it did. And I lost everything. and I had to sell my truck for three loaves of bread if I could have had that rainy day fund. And I want every audience member and every state that's out there to give that option to their citizens to say, hey, have a rainy day fund. That's there. This has been a steady store of values for four to five thousand years now. Just makes prudent sense to have something like this.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well.
Laurie Bolton: And really, you're putting yourself back on your own gold standard. Standard, essentially is what you're doing.
Kevin Freeman: You can have your own personal Gold standard. And that's exciting. You can get paid in gold, you can spend gold, you can keep it and save. really is a monetary. It's mind blowing. And that's why maybe you haven't even thought about this. That's why I wrote the book Pirate Money, to help people understand that our founders, the founders of this country, and in the Constitution, they wrote to make it possible to do this, but they left it to the states. That was a power specifically enumerated and granted to the states. And actually the Supreme Court ruling said the federal government cannot interfere with that. But the good news is we have members of Congress, we have the treasurer looking at this, we have the White House looking at this, and we have these court rulings that, that enable you to go on your own personal gold and silver standard, spend it like money, get paid in, changes everything. It really is a game changer. And in Tennessee, what's it going to look like? Where are you going with this in your own home state?
Laurie Bolton: Well, we have several important meetings set up. Mike and I are going to Georgia and then coming back immediately. We've got meetings set up, with the treasurer, the commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions and the comptroller. so we're trying to lay the groundwork ahead of time. there's kind of a weird thing that's happened in the past with what's gone on in Tennessee and some internal politics, but we basically are having our own bill this year and we haven't. We have a new sponsor, we have two new sponsors. And so it just so happens that the senator and the representative that are going to likely carry this are my actual representative and senator. So, I mean, there are, there's no such thing as coincidences. I imagine that this is the way God, had it worked out ahead of time. And Mike and I have already been to see them. I've had multiple meetings, with them on my own because I live here and it's easy.
Mike Carter: And they're not there. They're not doing it just because they're, that you're in their district. But they're the right ones and the right committees in the right, places. So that is another one kind of God winks that we see out there.
Kevin Freeman: Well, like in Arkansas, the home to the world's largest retailer, Walmart, and the idea that maybe Walmart, you could get paid by Walmart, they could pay their suppliers in gold, they could take gold as payment. You set this up and enough people adopt this, it will literally change the world. It will change the financial trajectory of this nation in a positive way. And so I have nothing but praise to say to you, Laurie and Mike. you have done such a great job.
Mike Carter: Thank you.
Kevin Freeman: Spreading the word, getting people excited. you created literally a movement, Laurie. Where do people go to find out more?
Laurie Bolton: they need to go to www.transactionalgold.com and if they want to get updates, they just need to fill out the stay and the no form, and they will begin to get updates from us on what's going on.
Pray for transactional gold and silver efforts to restore biblical sound money
Kevin Freeman: All right, this is an opportunity. We have to go back to biblical money. It's an opportunity to pray for. We need to pray for America and the world to return to God's principles and in doing so, his divine protection. Pray for transactional gold and silver efforts to restore biblical sound money. Listen to wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify and so forth. This is Kevan Freeman, joined by Mike Carter and Laurie for Pirate Money Radio.