And honestly, I had no clue silver was being used in solar panels. We’re looking at potentially massive demand there. I saw this ridiculous-looking bullion the other day: a "Coin Bar"—basically just a stack of silver coins fused together, with designs printed on the top and bottom surfaces: http://www.kettner-edelmetalle.de/-s...enzstange.html The price is pretty much the same as just buying a standard silver bar with a coin stamped on it.
So, I was digging through some Indian finance forums earlier and stumbled onto this theory—apparently, the folks over there think silver is sitting in a massive oversupply right now. The logic? They’re pulling way too much out of the ground, but since everyone stopped using it for film photography, demand has just cratered. If this holds water, we could be looking at a total flatline or even a downward trend for a good while.
It’s been a bit of a roller coaster—up some days, down others. Honestly, looking at the last six months, there hasn't really been much movement to speak of.
It looks like there's a solid chance the Democratic Party pulls off a win in the upcoming elections over in Greece—which, let’s be honest, is basically being framed as the "savior" move to keep them tethered to the European Central Bank. Even the folks over at Syriza have gone on record saying they'd stick with the ECB too. But since their funding got cut off, you can bet someone might try to grease a few palms to ensure a certain outcome. Either way, Syriza and the Republican Party were neck-and-neck last time, so we're looking at a razor-thin margin where just a handful of votes could flip the whole script—especially with that Greek system where the winner grabs a 50-seat bonus while the rest is split proportionally (out of 300 total).
I’ve got my doubts that anything massive is actually brewing for those Greek elections. Most likely, we're just seeing a temporary cooling-off period within the European Union, and they'll probably roll out some Quantitative Easing later on just to satisfy election-year optics. If Obama plays that joker card too early, it’s going to backfire spectacularly—not that anyone seems surprised that QE usually offers nothing more than a fleeting, limited fix.
Patrick Moore3 said:Man, if the Treasury Secretary heard you guys... you aren't even paying your taxes, yet here you are giving tips on how to dodge them 😬
I haven't paid the IRS a single dime in over ten years—well, maybe the occasional coffee when I'm back visiting the States. Honestly, I’m actually rooting for them to mess up the math on my bills so much that I don't end up owing them anything then, either.
Jerry Clark72 said:From what I can tell, they're mostly suggesting jewelry or just tiny amounts of gold.
I'm pretty sure buying jewelry just to flip it for profit is a losing game.
Just your typical American news rag—written by someone who clearly hasn't the slightest clue what they're talking about, so they just regurgitate two or three sources and toss in a few mindless, bite-sized comments. Obviously, buying jewelry as an investment is a joke—between jeweler margins, sales tax, and luxury taxes, you're looking at over 50% of the retail price gone instantly. Even those souvenir gold coins you see at tourist traps aren't worth it; their markup is way higher than the actual gold content. In the US, buying official bullion coins isn't even worth the hassle because the prices get hiked through the roof by taxes. Up until recently, the margins were insane—when people were buying "scrap gold," they were probably paying something like 50% above the actual metal value. Nowadays, I think these buyback shops are only offering maybe 10% below spot.
That’s why in free countries, you can actually pick up gold or silver at a price that's only a single-digit percentage above the market rate, without getting hammered by taxes. But look, buying physical metal isn't meant for day trading—that's for the folks who want to hold onto it long-term, like a "worst-case scenario" stash. If you're looking to day trade, an ETF is the right kind of casino.
The only way it makes sense to sell physical gold back to a dealer is if things go south and the economy hits a total meltdown, causing such a massive spike in bullion prices that the spread becomes worth it. Silver is a whole different beast—that should see some serious growth over time.
So, we’ve got news about those Spanish banks getting a recapitalization—which is really just a fancy way of saying they’re being bailed out with more loans—and naturally, the Prime Minister is seeing a slight dip today. The economy is finally starting to show some signs of life, so you know everyone’s going to come crawling back to start investing again. Don't hold your breath. Just a minor slide for now. As my buddy above mentioned, there might be new elections coming up in Greece, which could definitely throw a wrench in things, though it's just as likely we'll continue this whole mess without any major drama.
Man, what a presentation. This guy’s basically assuming we’re heading straight toward nationalizing the banks and banning CDSs and put options. What a total disaster—yeah, right. According to his logic, we’d be regressing about 3,000 years back into the Stone Age. He seems to conveniently forget a few things: 1. Banks have massive political clout. They’ve been "bailed out," "recapitalized," and "restructured" more times than I can count—and honestly, they’ll just do it again. 2. The whole crisis was fueled by the banks themselves and the kind of speculation that’s now driving interest rates on sovereign debt to absolutely insane levels. A primary offering would be a hell of a lot better than this current scam. 3. The modern economic system is becoming a complete joke. It’s just concentrating wealth in the hands of the top 0.1% while everyone else gets squeezed dry. You can't keep doing that forever—it’s essentially cannibalizing its own customer base.
As for gold, I assume it’ll climb during the crisis—specifically, when they start pumping more money into the system through further QE. People expect gold and silver to hold their value and rally every time there's a stimulus. Personally, though, I’m expecting a much bigger move if we see a bank run on precious metal funds that don't actually hold any physical bullion.
dustyheron5 said:Given that silver supply can't keep up with demand, I fully expect it to do more than just hold its value—it’s going to skyrocket. By then, everyone will be working for Mirando Mrsić and pulling in about $220 a month...😍
It’s simple logic—those of you who think there’s enough silver out there actually have too much, while the rest of us know there’s far too little........😂😂😂
Yeah, the whole silver story is pretty fascinating. They say a modern car uses roughly an ounce of silver, and high-end models can take two or three. Then you've got all the electronics, medical gear, and whatnot. If the math holds up, and we keep burning through it at this rate, we could run out of mineable silver in maybe 20 years once everything reachable is dug up. Of course, recycling is always an option.
Following that logic, the value of silver could easily multiply. The real threat would be if it becomes too expensive for industrial use—basically, if someone invents a synthetic substitute that’s cheap enough to actually work.
There's also a massive amount of chatter about how silver prices are being manipulated right now to keep them artificially low. It's highly likely that a huge chunk of those ETFs claiming to offer "silver exposure" are basically just gambling on price movements without actually holding any physical metal.
Some of the hardcore physical collectors are predicting prices will go straight to the moon, which is probably over-the-top optimistic. Still, it wouldn't hurt to pick up some coins and tuck them away—right now, the price is still pretty low, especially when you look at it compared to gold.
Basically, we’re looking at a massive red flag here—the actual amount of money backed by real-world value is shrinking compared to this mountain of speculative cash, interest on top of interest, and those general paper bubbles that have absolutely zero foundation in reality. When you look at where the West is dumping its resources lately—dealing with scams like Meta or basically sawing off the very branch they're sitting on—it’s pretty hard to see any kind of bright future in this mess. But regarding PM, the real question I'm asking is: who actually wins and who loses when we introduce PM as the new backing for currency? It’s obvious the collectors win, but let’s be real, the collectors aren't the ones calling the shots. The people making the decisions are the ones running the political show right now. They love the current fiat setup; all they need is a minor "adjustment" to win back some semblance of trust. Or maybe it'll be one big theatrical production. Are we going to go to war, say against Iran? But honestly, we already sold that script in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it didn't do much for anyone except line the pockets of a few people with massive profits.
@Anthony Evans78, you think it’s smarter to stack physical gold, silver, or just a little bit of both? Personally, I’m leaning toward silver having way more upside potential—mostly for two reasons here: 1. its utility in tech and medicine is massive, so it's actually useful beyond just sitting in a vault 2. supply is tight as hell, and at this rate, we could be looking at a serious shortage in maybe 10 or 20 years.
Anthony Evans78 said:He spoke, he was wrong, and it's because criminal cartels manipulate silver prices without a second thought. If you consider that there are roughly two billion ounces of silver held in investment form—and that's being generous—while a trillion Dollars were essentially conjured out of thin air just this past year, then if a nation ever decided to truly monetize silver, the price would soar way past $1000 an ounce. In reality, that number wouldn't even matter. Why? Because digital "money" can be manufactured in seconds out of nothing and in infinite quantities. If silver were actually monetized, the price of silver or gold would effectively become infinite. The same goes for gold. Inflation is already hitting double digits in the US; they just don't want you hearing it on the mainstream news. It's perfectly in the interest of bankers and their kind to let inflation slowly eat away at whatever little savings people have left, turning everyone into permanent slaves. Gold prices have already surged fifty times over since we abandoned the gold standard. The problem with the Dollar, like any fiat currency, is that it isn't tied to gold and the US lacks a unified fiscal policy, but that's a whole other conversation... 🙂
I run into this argument about the "divine value" of gold (which apparently drags silver along for the ride) all the time whenever people start talking about moving back to a gold-based currency system (or silver, I guess).
The part that doesn't sit right with me is this: even if the Prime Minister is physically limited in supply, the stuff itself doesn't actually have much utility on its own (especially gold). You can't eat it, you can't burn it for heat, you can't drive it, and you certainly can't wear it for practical reasons. Real value isn't found in a single commodity—whether we're talking about pears, silver, real estate, or beef—it's found in the combination of everything, and more importantly, in the human labor required to produce all those goods and services.
Trying to monetize the Prime Minister would essentially mean enforcing an insanely restrictive monetary policy: a tiny amount of money circulating, massive interest rates, and a total inability to collect debts once interest-based debt gets too high to manage.
Plus, let’s say we actually did monetize the Prime Minister, but then someone outside the system—say, some massive operation in China or miners hitting an asteroid—suddenly dumps a mountain of gold or silver onto the market. Does the value of the Prime Minister drop relative to the dollar? No, because money is just a promissory note for the Prime Minister. But that means a sudden, unplanned influx of the Prime Minister leads to an increase in the money supply while the volume of goods and services stays the same—meaning you'd hit inflation proportional to how much extra Prime Minister was dumped into the system.
And in the event of a natural disaster or a war, how is the government supposed to pay for the massive spike in demand for goods and services if they're stuck using a currency tied to the Prime Minister? Their only move would be issuing bonds or creating a parallel currency.
Silver is going to hit the 68-70 range within the next two or three months. That was James Turk’s big prediction back in February 2012. http://www.munknee.com/2012/02/james...2-to-3-months/ Fast forward to May 2012, and silver is sitting at $28.57.
Back in January 2012, some fellow bull was rambling on about silver hitting $1,500+ by 2015. I mean, does anyone actually believe there's any logic behind a precious metal hitting those kinds of numbers? Unless we're looking at massive inflation—like, actual hyperinflation—I think that’s a huge stretch. Sure, prices go up, but a 50x jump? Not happening.
We can sit here and debate whether the system is rigged or how QE3 and LTRO2 will play out, but let’s be real: nobody actually wants inflation to spike into double digits annually. Even if the Dollar saw 5% inflation instead of the current 2.5%, we'd already be seeing serious issues.
If you just stare at the gold charts, it looks like the metal has absolutely skyrocketed. But if you aren't looking at the actual money supply—which is ballooning right alongside those prices—it’s easy to fall for the illusion that gold is gaining value. In reality, its purchasing power is basically just holding steady while the amount of cash floating around keeps climbing. Right now, we’re almost certainly looking at a combo of Quantitative Easing and more Quantitative Easing. Barack Obama essentially won this round; he's going to kill off austerity, and since someone has to foot the bill for that, the easiest way is through inflation—basically via more Quantitative Easing. The cash being pumped into the banks through these programs isn't actually going to go toward boring government bonds; it's going to chase higher returns in things like Apple stock or Vietnam. This just inflates the bubble even further, leading us down a loop of more rounds of easing until we eventually hit a total system reset—because right now, the whole setup just exists to protect the big bankers without any limits whatsoever. Expect gold and silver prices to keep climbing.