Video News/In Focus with Jeremy Szafron

(Kitco News) - The inflation pushing the Federal Reserve toward another rate hike is being driven by supply shocks that higher interest rates cannot address, while silver's structural deficit is set to persist, according to Phil Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures. Speaking with Kitco News, Streible argued that the current inflation is not demand-driven but the result of tariffs, Iranian strikes lifting crude, and an attack on a Black Sea port sending wheat to multi-year highs, which he described as "taxes for the consumer." Rate hikes, he said, "don't manufacture more oil or wheat," and risk adding economic damage rather than solving the problem. On silver, Streible pointed to a "structural deficit that can't be fixed quickly," noting the metal has run supply deficits for consecutive years and that roughly 70% of it comes as a byproduct of copper, lead, and zinc mining, so higher prices cannot quickly bring new supply to market. He also made the case that investors should hold physical metal, futures, ETFs, and miners together, calling each "a different tool in a toolbox."