Thursday
A point worth considering…. The monetary metals have been separated, somewhat, in value by the heavy industrial demand for silver. This demand (primarily electronics) did not exist in the 19th century. Gold’s industrial uses are minimal by comparison – and will remain so because of its prohibitive value.
This reallocation of silver from the monetary sphere to the industrial sphere has diminished its value. More demand equals less value – figure that out! (really of course, it is less demand as the monetary/store of value demand for silver all but disappeared after the abandonment of the Gold standard.)
Because of this, and notwithstanding short-term fluctuations, I expect Gold to continue to outperform silver.
Until, that is, we reach the point of currency collapse. Then, silver which traditionally acts as Gold’s surrogate in the marketplace, should come into its own again as the medium of exchange.
At that point, silver’s value will rise greatly and possibly approach close to its historical ratio of 15-1 – i.e., it will take 15oz silver to buy 1oz Gold.
There is one important proviso to this, which is that with the use of electronic money, it is possible that monetary use will be limited to fractions of Gold only, and that silver will be obsolete as a monetary metal.
I somehow doubt that though, as there will always be a demand for cash, and that means silver will again begin its pocket jingle.