Very good historical references! But, I think Mr. Hickman is discounting several massive issues in silver’s favor. First, of course, is silver’s role as “money of the people”. Almost nobody will be trying to purchase groceries in gold as the dollar collapses; the parallel economy among the people will evolve in silver. At least as long as silver remains less expensive than gold. Supply and demand (see below).
Second, most silver gets used up, whereas most gold is conserved. Given that industrial plus investment demand has been growing annually and exceeding annual new mine supply for several years, now, silver is becoming more scarce whereas gold really isn’t. Widespread recycling of silver isn’t economically viable yet. Huge amounts are used in applications that aren’t recoverable, anyway (medicinal purposes and military weapons, for example). Big new silver deposits aren’t being discovered, and even though the bulk of silver comes as a by-product from base metal mines, globally synchronized economic downturns will insure less demand for base metals and hence less mining. Therefore, silver will become in ever SHORTER supply as time goes on.
Third, even as the silver supply is shrinking and future silver new supply is projected to decrease, the diversity of applications for silver in industry is increasing. More industries want more silver for more purposes. No other metal will substitute. This insures that competition for new and existing silver supplies will increase, even as the global economy heads into the dumper. The same is not true for gold. Most gold demand comes from banks and wealthy individuals using it as a monetary hedge. While demand for gold to hedge and back up currencies (think BRICKS for now) is pretty much unlimited, it is also not being pushed by absolute need. In contrast, the drive to create more weapons of war and electrify the global energy supply means that there’s an absolute need for silver. These goals will be unobtainable without silver. A shrinking world economy will not provide the same need for gold. Plus, the push to force all humans into a digital economy requires sufficient silver to run the electronics necessary to accomplish that objective. No silver, no CBDC’s!
And last but not least, the fact that silver is currently still so affordable relative to gold (thank you, government price suppression policies!) means that as the feces begin to touch the rotating blades, average people will rush to salvage whatever they can of their remaining wealth by putting their remaining depreciating dollars into silver rather than gold. Yes, this will likely create FOMO, but when FOMO meets the bugaboo of no more supply, prices will stay elevated pretty much forever. Maybe not at peak, but far above current price. And the price will rise over time from there with inflation (death of the dollar) getting a boost from increasing scarcity.
There are already signs that the main exchanges -COMEX and the LBMA - are bleeding dry because traders are getting wise and demanding physical delivery. Traders are also arbitraging what’s left in the warehouses to the higher-paying Shanghai gold exchange. (Think of the long-term stupidity of arbitraging an asset of increasing value for rapidly depreciating dollars. Oh, the humanity! 😂😂) Anyway, China is so hungry for silver that it’s not only sucking away the West’s refined silver at above market cost, it’s also surreptitiously going to miners in South America and importing their raw silver concentrate to refine at home. This allows them to import silver without having those imports tracked. Why would our greatest trading partner and biggest rival, which is currently going through an economic meltdown of its own, be frantically trying to gather every last gram of available silver in any form, if silver looked like it would forever remain grossly inferior in price to gold? Think about that!
Warnings of an impending supply crisis in silver are everywhere. At the same time, it’s recognition as a monetary metal is being revived by individuals and governments alike. In my opinion, these factors together suggest that silver will, in the not too distant future, shoot back to a 10:1 or 15:1 ratio with gold, and likely become even MORE valuable than gold.
Here’s my bottom line, for what it’s worth: silver is so valuable to governments, probably for its military applications, that they have been working for decades to suppress its price more vigorously than they have ever worked to suppress the price of any other commodity. That much we know. So that implies that silver will be the very last item of any sort to break free of the shackles of our grossly distorted and controlled global markets. Accordingly, rapid and unstoppable increases in the price of silver will be the signal that the end of the economic life as we know it is here. And with the end of economic life will come the end of ALL aspects of life as we currently know them. A new system will emerge, perhaps after multiple false starts. Nobody knows what that will look like. However, during the birthing period and into the early years of the new system, at least, gold and silver will be the only monetary items left standing. So, yes to gold, of course, but the dark horse from which fantastic fortunes will be made will actually be silver, as I see it.
This is why the markets exist … I don’t hate gold at all, but I believe silver has been suppressed since the Boxer Rebellion. I believe in silver and have never been let down.
Very good historical references! But, I think Mr. Hickman is discounting several massive issues in silver’s favor. First, of course, is silver’s role as “money of the people”. Almost nobody will be trying to purchase groceries in gold as the dollar collapses; the parallel economy among the people will evolve in silver. At least as long as silver remains less expensive than gold. Supply and demand (see below).
Second, most silver gets used up, whereas most gold is conserved. Given that industrial plus investment demand has been growing annually and exceeding annual new mine supply for several years, now, silver is becoming more scarce whereas gold really isn’t. Widespread recycling of silver isn’t economically viable yet. Huge amounts are used in applications that aren’t recoverable, anyway (medicinal purposes and military weapons, for example). Big new silver deposits aren’t being discovered, and even though the bulk of silver comes as a by-product from base metal mines, globally synchronized economic downturns will insure less demand for base metals and hence less mining. Therefore, silver will become in ever SHORTER supply as time goes on.
Third, even as the silver supply is shrinking and future silver new supply is projected to decrease, the diversity of applications for silver in industry is increasing. More industries want more silver for more purposes. No other metal will substitute. This insures that competition for new and existing silver supplies will increase, even as the global economy heads into the dumper. The same is not true for gold. Most gold demand comes from banks and wealthy individuals using it as a monetary hedge. While demand for gold to hedge and back up currencies (think BRICKS for now) is pretty much unlimited, it is also not being pushed by absolute need. In contrast, the drive to create more weapons of war and electrify the global energy supply means that there’s an absolute need for silver. These goals will be unobtainable without silver. A shrinking world economy will not provide the same need for gold. Plus, the push to force all humans into a digital economy requires sufficient silver to run the electronics necessary to accomplish that objective. No silver, no CBDC’s!
And last but not least, the fact that silver is currently still so affordable relative to gold (thank you, government price suppression policies!) means that as the feces begin to touch the rotating blades, average people will rush to salvage whatever they can of their remaining wealth by putting their remaining depreciating dollars into silver rather than gold. Yes, this will likely create FOMO, but when FOMO meets the bugaboo of no more supply, prices will stay elevated pretty much forever. Maybe not at peak, but far above current price. And the price will rise over time from there with inflation (death of the dollar) getting a boost from increasing scarcity.
There are already signs that the main exchanges -COMEX and the LBMA - are bleeding dry because traders are getting wise and demanding physical delivery. Traders are also arbitraging what’s left in the warehouses to the higher-paying Shanghai gold exchange. (Think of the long-term stupidity of arbitraging an asset of increasing value for rapidly depreciating dollars. Oh, the humanity! 😂😂) Anyway, China is so hungry for silver that it’s not only sucking away the West’s refined silver at above market cost, it’s also surreptitiously going to miners in South America and importing their raw silver concentrate to refine at home. This allows them to import silver without having those imports tracked. Why would our greatest trading partner and biggest rival, which is currently going through an economic meltdown of its own, be frantically trying to gather every last gram of available silver in any form, if silver looked like it would forever remain grossly inferior in price to gold? Think about that!
Warnings of an impending supply crisis in silver are everywhere. At the same time, it’s recognition as a monetary metal is being revived by individuals and governments alike. In my opinion, these factors together suggest that silver will, in the not too distant future, shoot back to a 10:1 or 15:1 ratio with gold, and likely become even MORE valuable than gold.
Here’s my bottom line, for what it’s worth: silver is so valuable to governments, probably for its military applications, that they have been working for decades to suppress its price more vigorously than they have ever worked to suppress the price of any other commodity. That much we know. So that implies that silver will be the very last item of any sort to break free of the shackles of our grossly distorted and controlled global markets. Accordingly, rapid and unstoppable increases in the price of silver will be the signal that the end of the economic life as we know it is here. And with the end of economic life will come the end of ALL aspects of life as we currently know them. A new system will emerge, perhaps after multiple false starts. Nobody knows what that will look like. However, during the birthing period and into the early years of the new system, at least, gold and silver will be the only monetary items left standing. So, yes to gold, of course, but the dark horse from which fantastic fortunes will be made will actually be silver, as I see it.
This is why the markets exist … I don’t hate gold at all, but I believe silver has been suppressed since the Boxer Rebellion. I believe in silver and have never been let down.