When we think of gold, we think of the solid, safe-haven, value-holding, inflation-hedging, shiny, yellow metal that lets us sleep at night knowing the governments of the world cannot print it out of existence. Gold is the big cheese in the precious-metals investing community. There’s no doubt that gold should be a part of everyone’s investment portfolio, but it’s important not to forget gold’s little brother: silver.
Why does silver move so much further,
and faster, than gold...?
What would you think if someone told you the following?
The notion that silver has been recently trading more like a base metal is more a fallacy than fact. Some of the top technical analysts have been stating that the reason why the price of silver has not held up as well as gold is due to the fact that silver trades more like copper than gold. Basically, if the "King" of the base metals suffers... so will silver. While this makes good press, the reality is much different if we look at the data below. 
I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with one of the western world’s most courageous and astute women, Karen Hudes, Former Senior Counsel to the World Bank—
To understand the price action in gold and government bonds it helps to compare it to what is called 'price tagging' in some circles. And I'll get to the definition of this in a minute.
Don’t let the lackluster showing for silver prices in 2013 fool you – things are about to change.
Gold bugs are quite simply “bugged” by the recent drop in the price of gold
and silver! Hopefully none of you capitulated and started
selling. If you did you will soon realize that you were hood
winked. You see the value of gold and silver has not dropped, only the
price of the shiny metals. This is a buying opportunity to get in for
anyone who hasn’t already started to collect metals for protection.
You see the ultimate movement, by the world’s nations, out of dollars has
begun all around the globe. The trickle is becoming a stream and will
ultimately churn into a torrential river overflowing its banks.
Ultimately, the U.S. dollar's exchange value will plummet. 
“Buyers Scour Asia for Physical Gold,” proclaimed a headline in the Financial Times — in a story buried on page 18, because it relates favorably to gold and gold bugs.
All bull markets go through periods of consolidations and corrections. And precious metals are no exception. 
All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver. Recent events have helped fuel a "buying frenzy" that threatens to spiral out of control. Gun shops all over the nation 
We wrote about the 
Silver has been the worst performing commodity of 2013...
Precious metal expert Rick Rule is not worried about the recent smack down in gold and silver prices. Rule is motivated by wealth protection. So, the price decline is a "nonevent." Rule asks, "What are the alternatives? Perhaps you'd like to buy a 30-year U.S. Treasury, something Jim Grant famously described as a return-free risk." Rule thinks the financial world is far from healthy and says, "I have extreme nervousness in regards to a collapse. . . . The only way we could avoid collapse is if we inflate away the net present value of our obligations. In both sets of circumstances, I am personally more comfortable owning precious metals than not." Cyprus is a stunning example of why people should store some wealth in precious metals. Rule contends, "If you were a Cypriot citizen and you had stored your wealth in gold and silver as opposed to having your money on deposit in a Cypriot bank, the Cypriot banking crisis, for you, would be interesting but not relevant. 
A stunning piece of information was brought to my attention yesterday. Amid all the mainstream talk of the end of the gold bull market (and the end of the gold mining industry), something has been discretely happening behind the scenes.
Dr. Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com says powerful forces around the globe are working to do away with trading in U.S. dollars because of massive money printing by the Fed. Dr. Willie says, "The world makes a reaction, and what they have done is create, slowly but surely, a U.S. dollar alternative for trade." Dr. Willie's sources say precious metals will be used to back a new currency and predicts, "The gold price will be $7,500 to $8,000, and silver will be between $150 and $250 per ounce." This will be a disaster for U.S. Treasuries, and Jim Willie says, "All these Treasury Bonds will be sent back to the United States where they can choke U.S. bankers . . . they cannot refuse them." Dr. Willie predicts "the economy will implode," and he says, "I don't believe we're going to see garden variety powerful inflation. I believe, instead, we're going to get large widespread cut-off of supply chains" as foreigners simply stop accepting the dollar. As far as dollar assets inside the U.S., expect widespread confiscation. Dr. Willie contends, "When the losses from the debt write-downs come, I see tremendous national wealth lost because private accounts are really just bank assets." Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with 
Dear readers ask about gold. Is it time to
sell? To buy? To forget about it?
William Patalon writes: It's one of the biggest mysteries in finance right now. 
Pay Attention 
As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
Had those with money tied up in the Cypriot banking system owned gold instead, they might have been able to watch the unfolding crisis relaxing on the beach. So why isn’t gold going through the roof? Is Cyprus too small to matter? Can it happen in the U.S.? Should investors hold gold?
Bloomberg reported recently that Russia is now the world's biggest gold buyer, its central bank having added 570 tonnes (18.3 million troy ounces) over the past decade. At $1,650/ounce, that's $30.1 billion worth of gold.
At $1,600, gold is a bargain.
I'll save the good for a moment, but the bad and the ugly seem to permeate the silver and gold and other markets. On Wednesday, I mentioned that one reason gold and silver failed to move higher after the Cyprus news was such a rally would have interfered with a planned takedown in copper, platinum and palladium, which was evident on Monday and Tuesday. For the record, there was the expected substantial commercial buying in copper and platinum, a bit less in palladium. My point is that commercial positioning on the NYMEX/COMEX is the strongest short term price influence, way ahead of anything else, including actual news and developments in the real world of supply and demand. This is so contrary to commodity law that I believe the regulators must be thought of as corrupt. 
The ECB, IMF, and EU have let a treacherous Genie out of the bottle last week-end. Their bailout offer to Cyprus included a
plan to tax depositor’s savings at the Cyprus banks, or Cyprus can come up with another methodology to make up that bailout
amount ($7.5B). In either case, such a plan is to be completed on Monday, or there will be no further bailout monies for Cyprus. The ECB and the IMF have stated that this “depositor’s tax” was a “one-time and one country” situation.
In the 1930′s, when President Roosevelt seized physical gold from Americans, gold mining companies remained untouched by the draconian move. And, while stocks in the United States dropped precipitously and remained depressed for a decade, companies whose primary business was the exploration and mining of gold and silver rose to new highs. Homestake mining, a gold mining firm operating during FDR’s Presidency, was one such company that saw its shares skyrocket over 500%.
Even though the newsletter I write for Casey Research is focused primarily on gold, our metals investments cover all the precious metals, and when warranted, some base-metals plays too. And with the markets in the state they are, I want to say something about silver…
Has the silver market been pricing in the coming collapse? In a word, no! 
(Editor's Note: Confiscation, not unlike inflation, is theft. Whether it's your guns or your gold, it is theft. Those that implement it are thieves. Those that condone it are criminal predators. Those that resist it are free men. Those that accept it are slaves. Don't associate with slaves. It won't wash off. - JSB)
QE for the People: Grillo's Populist Plan for Italy ... Comedian Beppe Grillo was surprised himself when his Five Star Movement got 8.7 million votes in the Italian general election of Feb. 24-25. His movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, says The Guardian, which makes him "a kingmaker in a hung parliament." Grillo's is the party of "no." In a candidacy based on satire, he organized an annual "V-Day Celebration," the "V" standing for vaffanculo ("f--k off"). He rejects the status quo -- all the existing parties and their monopoly control of politics, jobs, and financing -- and seeks a referendum on all international treaties, including 
Silver has been trading sideways so far in 2013, but what will the rest of the year bring? Will 2013 be the year silver prices break out or crash and burn? What is a sustainable silver price for mining companies and where will the metal come from to supply the next generation of industrial and investment demand? Most important, how can investors make money off this volatile sector? These were the burning questions 
Nixon dropped the link between the dollar and gold in 1971. Thereafter, the money supply rapidly expanded, consumer price inflation went wild, and both silver and gold increased in price by over a factor of 20 in early 1980.
Let's begin with a definition. Investopedia.com defines the 
Nobody ever said riding a (gold) bull market was easy. Unless you’re prepared to buy, close your eyes, and come back years later, then I’m afraid we have to take the good with the bad.
If you've ever suspected gold prices are being manipulated, you're not alone--and you're right, they are.
Gold has now been negatively correlated to the S&P 500 for the last 26 trading days, (which for you WestPalmBeachers down there means these two markets have, on balance, being moving in opposite directions since 24 January). Such streak marks Gold's longest run of negative correlation to the S&P since the 56-trading day run in 2011 that spanned from 11 July through 27 September, during which period Gold traded from 1555 to its All-Time High of 1923.
Wallace, Idaho – Some observations about the reopening of the Lucky Friday Mine after a year's federally-ordered closure, which you may or may not have learnt from the "news" coverage last week of separate press conferences held by CEO Phil Baker in Wallace and Spokane.
Given the profoundly bearish sentiment that has gripped so many participants in the resource sector, particularly gold investors, we decided to poll the chief editors at Casey Research regarding the current sell-off. We recognize the severity of the situation and want readers to know we're taking it very seriously.
We also want readers to know that the "Casey consensus" is not a single view imposed on all, but the result of a constant conversation we have among ourselves, questioning our own premises, making sure we don't ignore new data if and when it contradicts our expectations. This is why some of the thoughts below will seem less positive than others; we see this sort of open discourse as a good and healthy thing for out business. Read More
It is vital to understand that what we face is by no means the plain vanilla version of governments just printing into hyperinflation. These people are fighting back as is ALWAYS the case with core and major economies. The German hyperinflation took place AFTER a revolution with a unstable government that lacked credit. When there is “credit” then government FIRST tries to keep the game afoot and that means the bankers threaten they will collapse unless debt is serviced. This is why the FIRST response is all out financial war against the people.
The price of silver futures contracts have been regularly flirting with a state of backwardation ever since the 2008 Financial Crisis, which is a sign of a growing physical silver shortage. 
