tolly_67 said:
This is true. It is also true that silver and gold can stay lower than production costs for a lot longer than many miners can remain in business.
Do not discount this possibility. This in turn would provide the energy for a much high price in the future. Less miners, less supply with an increasing demand.
This is why the small miners are a much riskier investment on a falling price approaching production costs.
Never say never.
Yep. It's all a matter of the size of the stockpile out there.
For the average price trend, it actually doesn't matter if it's all sold in one go or over the period of a couple decades.
Compare the period 1997-2003 (Moz/year):
- Net Government Purchases -57.314/YEAR
- Implied Net Investment -37.457/YEAR
- Jewelry 164.514/YEAR
- Coins & Medals 31.029/YEAR
with the period 2004-2012:
- Net Government Purchases -39.833/YEAR
- Implied Net Investment 75.867/YEAR
- Jewelry 184.333/YEAR
- Coins & Medals 68.489/YEAR
What do we see:
1) 1997-2003 were 7 years implied investment of -37,5 Moz per year.
2004-2012 were 9 years implied investment of 75,9 Moz per year, almost tripled (from minus to positive)
2) 1997-2003 were 7 years coins & medals investment of 31 Moz per year.
2004-2012 were 9 years coins & medals investment of 68,5 Moz per year, thus doubled.
3) 1997-2003 were 7 years government investment of -57,3 Moz per year.
2004-2012 were 9 years government investment of -39,9 Moz per year, so dropped to a 70% of before level.
Combined rate of investment 1997-2003: -63.8 Moz per year (negative so disinvestment years), totaling to 446.6 Moz sold over 7 years.
Combined rate of investment 2004-2012: 104.5 Moz per year (positive so investment years), totaling to 940.5 Moz bought over 9 years.
Now, the price 1997-2003 stayed around $5, meaning that the disinvestment compensated for rising demand (rate 63.8 Moz per year).
So if we assume the same balancing/compensating over 2004-2012, it gives 104.5/63.8=1,64 times more years, so 7 x 1.64=11,5 years price hang from 2012 onwards. Or at least a decade to go from now.
So it's clear, there is no hurry to add to the stack!

Crises are not what alot think. From the central planners perspective, a crisis is nothing but an attempt to make bank depositors waste their deposits on products whose prices earlier got bloated by entities/buddies of the central planners. Then those buddies pay back the for-free derived deposits to the central banks, and bingo, the former bank deposits get destroyed, so the new money spenders don't face the competition of the old money around. And since the deposits dropped, the central banks can again increase intrest rates, the intrest payments cost them then less annually, and a new cycle started. Rinse and repeat!
