the silver secret
Two of the oldest commodities known to man, gold and silver, share a history dating back thousands of years. The role of gold has changed little through the passage of time. The same cannot be said for silver. In fact, it is the remarkable transformation in the usage of silver that has set the stage for an upside price explosion and for wealth generation so great, it is difficult to fully comprehend. The facts are compelling and clear. Those who take the time to learn them, stand a good chance of reaping financial rewards.
The “secret” in silver is that its main usage has changed radically over the past hundred years. Despite a transformation that is easy to document, it has gone almost unnoticed. Both gold and silver spent the last 5.000 years as jewelry and monetary assets. Gold has continued to function in that role. However, the main usage of silver has switched to an industrial metal. This overlooked transformation will propel silver prices to extraordinary heights.
Starting 100 to 150 years ago, silver’s highly useful industrial properties were discovered. As a result, billions of ounces in world inventories began to be depleted. In 1950, there were 10 billion ounces of silver in world inventories (most owned by the U.S. government). Today maybe 2 billion in world inventories in 1,000-ounce bar form exist. Where did the depleted silver go? Considering that silver is the best conductor of electricity and heat, the best reflector of light and a premier chemical agent, it’s not that difficult to see how billions of ounces were used up in a century. It’s not a question of world silver inventories being depleted, that is simple to document – the question is why this depletion is hardly mentioned?
Now that silver prices are finally showing signs of life (having recently hit 10-year highs), is this just a temporary blip to the upside, soon to be dashed by yet-another COMEX-induced price smash or does the move higher portend much greater gains to come? While no one knows for sure, it seems to me that the depletion in world inventories, along with a continuing physical shortage must result in sharply higher silver prices.
What was formerly the greatest usage for silver, photography, peaked out around the turn of the century. As photography has fallen by the wayside, the new main usage for silver is in photovoltaic solar cells to generate electricity. The biggest difference between silver used in photography and in solar cells, is that silver used in photography was largely recovered, whereas there won’t be significant recycling in solar cells for 20 to 30 years. The difference is bullish beyond description.
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