JB3 said:
The 'stockpile' is small - the entire above-ground supply would fit in a cube about the size of a tennis court.
In no year since the birth of Christ has the growth in available gold been more than 5%.
The 'stockpile' growth of humans to buy the gold, and the dollars they'd use to buy it, both far exceed the expansion in gold supply.
Lastly, the costs of mining gold mean if the price falls sufficiently, the expansion in supply stops.
Those dollars you talk about, go to alot, gold being just one example, and a dropping price means that people move those dollars to other things.
And the cost of mining is quite irrelevant for gold, we have had many years of a stable mine production, yet the price sweeped up and down like a yoyo. And why? Because of that ever increasing stockpile that gets sold and bought back. Central banks sold many thousands tonnes in the decades ahead of 2011. To suppress the gold price for those that bought it during 1970-1980, as to give them less dollars when selling the supposed inflation hedge. And since 2011, central banks bought instead. Over 1000 tonnes in just a couple years. Because people still want to buy gold and they want to keep the price higher so that they receive less. It's obvious that they will become again net sellers once this is over.
Your stockpile growth / far exceeding dollar expansion argument is only true in mathematical terms, not in economical terms, and in the end, only the latter matters (purchasing power). So it's a bogus argument, that applies to ALOT, if not all products. It doesnt make gold better or worser relative to these instead of the dollar.
An expansion/reduction in supply is for gold mostly based on ownership shifting of existing stocks, mining having little to nothing to do with it.
Just look at the gold recycling, near to no industrial part in it, purely existing stock owners selling whatever holding gold.
<year> <recycled tonnes> <average price>
1997 631 $331
1998 1108 $294
1999 620 $279
2000 619 $279
2001 749 $271
2002 872 $310
2003 985 $363
2004 878 $410
2005 897 $445
2006 1126 $603
2007 956 $695
2008 1217 $872
2009 1672 $972
2010 1653 $1224
2011 1611.9 $1572
2012 1625.6 $1669
2013 ???? $1411
Recycling doubled over the past 5 years.
The mine production trend:
About hanging around 2600 tonnes.
Makes it quite clear eh?
JB3 said:
Now, I'm a fan of silver too, but gold has significant merits. As for being a manipulated market - I agree central banks aren't hoarding silver but that's because there isn't the silver to hoard. Silver is behaving in an even more illogical and manipulated manner - if the gold price price is being suppressed, silver's must be evev moreso. Less of it to go around, more industrial uses, and yet it trades at less than a fourth of its rarity compared to gold.
What's not logical about the silver market? A metal doesnt behave, it's trading people that behave, and silvers market is visited by more newbies that dont have much clue about what it going on / its market, as illustrated by the blind belief of the Zerohedge etc bullshit. Others take advantage of these newbies, so what do we have: for every ounce a newbie buys, the money for nothing club buys 2, driving price twice as fast as 'normal'. But lack of knowledge is solvable, central banks crap isn't, because the latter have legal manners to get/do what they want.
And there is plenty silver to hoard. How I know? Because the hoards prove it, haha. Look at the ETF's. These didn't exist 5 years ago. They hold now about 500-600 Moz. Look at all the coins produced the past decade. I have many myself haha. Central banks just need to order, and it will be made available. It's not a coincidence that the silver mine production increased from 650 to 800 Moz in the recent 5 years. More demand = higher price = more profit = more investment in production = more silver. But if central banks would have stockpiled silver, I would have stepped aside silver just like I stepped aside gold.