US Debt Clock......(and silver)..........

DoubleEagle59

I always get a kick when I see the numbers climbing every second.

I posted it here because check out the far right column.

True dollar ratios to silver, oil, gold and cryptocurrency.

Interesting ratios and shows silver is by far the cheapest right now.

In fact I heard this and please correct me if I'm wrong, out of all the precious metals, silver is the only one that is currently lower than its price back in 1980.

https://usdebtclock.org/

ricko

Interesting... Thanks for the link.... Cheers, RickO

OPA

But only for a short period of time...The rest of 1980 was not so pleasant for silver...

Silver jumped to a record high of $49.45 per troy ounce on January 18, 1980, however, silver plummeted from the January high , to $10.20 per oz. in March and remained under $25 pr oz for the rest of the year. Compliments from the Hunt brothers.

https://futures.tradingcharts.com/historical/SV/1980/0/continuous.html

cohodk

Yes...i believe the average price in 1980 was about $20. Two years later it was 8.

WCC

Not sure what the purpose of the ratios on right side serve. To my knowledge, the gold-silver ratio has never been as low as 7-1 in all of modern history. Gold is relatively overpriced but anyone who has looked at commodity prices alone can see it. It's a lot more likely that gold will lose relative value in the "long term" than gain it, versus the goods and services that people actually need to buy.

The ratio between a barrel of oil and an ounce of silver is about 2-1 right now. This doesn't make silver particularly cheap versus oil to my recollection since I was born.

Higashiyama

@WCC said "It's a lot more likely that gold will lose relative value in the "long term" than gain it, versus the goods and services that people actually need to buy."

I do tend to agree with this, because I suspect that in the very long term, gold will gradually continue to be demonetized.

When people look at the historical gold/silver ratio, they frequently forget the fact that silver had a significant monetary role through much of recorded history, up though about 1950. Between 1950 - 1970, it was effectively demonetized, which reduced its value. If the gold/silver ratio returns to historical norms, it would happen because gold is gradually demonetized, silver is remonetized, or (as some posters here believe), because the growth in industrial use of silver outstrips the growth in industrial use of gold.

WCC

@Higashiyama said:
@WCC said "It's a lot more likely that gold will lose relative value in the "long term" than gain it, versus the goods and services that people actually need to buy."

I do tend to agree with this, because I suspect that in the very long term, gold will gradually continue to be demonetized.

I don't believe it will be demonetized voluntarily. This doesn't mean it cannot happen as it did with silver but the difference to me is that silver's demonetization occurred during a period of relative stability and prosperity.

I have stated it many times here but my opinion is for the same reason I have given before. There has been a lot more monetary inflation since about 1982 than price inflation, especially in the goods and services that most people have to buy. The exception has been in "big ticket" items where the government has an outsized role in financing; think housing, medical care and "education", especially university "education".

In the future, I expect an asset price crash to deflate the current asset mania and if current government policy is any indication, the political response is going to be more QE and "stimulus", a lot more. At "some point", the ability to issue "free" money with limited or no consequences is going to end, the prices of essentials are going to soar and most Americans are going to be poorer or a lot poorer. This is when I expect gold to lose a lot relative value, especially if the political response creates shortages in essential goods. I expect silver to lose a lot less but only because it is relatively a lot cheaper.

@Higashiyama said:

When people look at the historical gold/silver ratio, they frequently forget the fact that silver had a significant monetary role through much of recorded history, up though about 1950. Between 1950 - 1970, it was effectively demonetized, which reduced its value. If the gold/silver ratio returns to historical norms, it would happen because gold is gradually demonetized, silver is remonetized, or (as some posters here believe), because the growth in industrial use of silver outstrips the growth in industrial use of gold.

I agree with this and have said so many times, though I don't believe industrial usage will make much of a difference. This is aside from the fact that the ratio was set a arbitrarily by government and seldom (if ever) reflected the relative market price anyway. Regardless, there is no reason to believe the 16-1 ratio has any relevance at all today. Relative prices change, all the time.

derryb

Borrowing and printing up trillions and trillions of dollars isn’t real. It’s a special form of deceit economists call inflation

jmski52

Remember that it's all a confidence game.

Gold and silver may be demonetized, but a loss of confidence in the currency will ruin a lot of personal fortunes in its wake, while gold & silver will, in my opinion, stand the best chance of retaining value in a monetary sense.

Who knows? We may be trading wampum beads when nobody trusts govt fiat - digital, paper or otherwise.