Silver prices soar as debt and political fears send assets to new records.

Photo above - Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock watch the value of their "latinum" ingots tank, during the famous episode "The Futures Contract on the Edge of Forever" . . .

Where can I stash my spare change? Bitcoin at $90K looks pricey. And it's down about 20% over the past 6 months. Gold used to be the go-to alternative for preppers. But it’s around $4,500 an ounce now. Do they still make 10th ounce coins? Would that be recognized as real money by grocery stores if the credit card networks are off the air for a week? “Palladium” . . . ? WTH – is that even a real thing?

The answer to financial instability, apparently, is silver (see link below). It’s up 150% for the year. 3 times the return of Nvidia (NVDA). And it does NOT use as much electricity as small city like AI does. An ounce of silver used to be $28. So did gold. And weed. Look at them go now.

Nobody is really thinking worst case when they buy 1 ounce silver bars, gold Krugerrands, or Palladium poser coins from the US mint, however. If you hit the bricks with any of these things trying to buy groceries or disposable diapers you’d get mugged faster than you can say “ATM withdrawal”.

Copper might be the dark horse here. It’s 37 cents per ounce. $5.77 pound. But on the commodities market you have to buy copper by the ton. Which is NOT 2,000 pounds, bizarrely. If you want bulk copper, their tons are 25,000 pounds. Which puts it over $100,000 for an ingot. copper is up more than Nividia this year. If you own a copper mine (or shares of a copper mining stock like Rio Tinto) you’re probably outperforming the AI darlings.

There are easier ways to bulk up on copper though. You could just go to Home Depot and buy 10 foot copper pipes ($45.99). Or go to abandoned houses and steal it. Or to occupied houses while someone is out of town visiting relatives over the holidays. Your profits are only limited by your imagination and appetite for adventure.

Copper at $100,000 an ingot is part of the reason affordable housing isn’t affordable.

Evidently the US inflation data (2.7%) completely ignores Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and Copper. The only industrial metal not soaring is iron, which is down from $225 to $100 (a ton) over the past 5 years. For some reason, during the pandemic, someone thought Iron was the new gold, and sent prices over the moon.

Let’s hope that isn’t what's happening today with silver.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Silver prices continue soaring as debt and geopolitical fears send precious metals to new records | Fortune

Copper prices are rising. Thieves are taking notice | CNN Business

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow both of the gold mining stocks i owned for the past 2 years were Canadian mining operations. there's a gold rush there and people generally don't realize it.

PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

@SusanInFlorida Depends on how you are defining a gold rush.

Most people are buying "paper gold". Essentially an IOU payable in gold. Same for silver.

Physical gold production has increased but the most current numbers are from 2024.

And that was only 200 tonnes up from 198 tonnes.

Not a big increase.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow i owned shares of 2 (canadian) mining companies. i bailed last summer because i i'd had huge profits. i left the game too soon.