by beauanderos » Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:28 am
This from Ted Butler:
"The recent underperformance of silver relative to gold and other commodities presents an added reason to consider silver as undervalued. While many investors view relative price weakness as a reason to avoid purchase, that reaction is incorrect for a market already manipulated to the downside, like silver. In fact, an objective analysis of the relative price moves this year in gold and silver should bring that out. Silver and gold have more in common than any other commodity, making them an ideal relative comparison. As I write this, gold is up $325 (23%) year to date, while silver is up $2 (6.5%). (Admittedly, silver has generally outperformed gold on different time spans). Since there are 3 billion ounces of gold bullion in the world (out of 5 billion oz total), the value of those bullion ounces have increased this year by almost $1 trillion, to over $5.2 trillion. The total value of the world’s one billion ounces of silver bullion has increased by $2 billion to $33 billion. In other words, the increase alone in the value of the world’s gold bullion this year is 30 times greater than the total value of all the world’s silver bullion. Please think about that for a moment."
"My point is that there is not much difference in the investment merits of gold and silver to warrant such a mismatch in the value of each. Both are precious metals valued by world investors in times of economic stress and loss of confidence. That the dollar value of gold is almost 175 times greater than the dollar value of silver is absurd. Let me be clear in what I am saying. I am not saying that gold is valued at absurd levels; I am saying that silver is being valued at absurdly low levels relative to gold. It is absurd that a ten dollar change in the gold price is equal to the total value of all the world’s silver bullion. The true absurdity is that this mismatch in relative values is not yet recognized by the world’s investors, even the big and sharp hedge fund operators. As and when it is recognized, those investors will rush to buy silver. In a very real sense, the higher gold prices climb, the better it is for silver. A higher gold price is the silver investor’s best friend."
The Hand of God moves Worlds