I was going to write a long-winded, boring article about the spot price of silver and how it currently doesn’t reflect reality. But why bother when somebody else has done it for you?

For those of you who don’t know, there is currently a substantial shortage in the physical gold and silver markets. Buying a silver or gold coin (or bullion) is difficult right now for the simple reason that demand is outstripping supply and that’s resulted in a precious metals shortage. There’s more to it than that, but I’m inherently lazy and will let the articles linked below explain further. In some instances, gold is selling for 50% above spot price and silver is a whopping 100% or more ABOVE the “spot” price if you can even find some for sale.

Over the course of last Saturday, I was able to locate a total of 12 ounces of silver by calling local coin shops. 12 ounces of silver for sale in a metropolitan area with millions of people! What’s more, they wanted $19 per ounce! This is when the “spot” price is hovering around $9.10 per ounce. Further verification was found by calling other out-of-state coin shops where store after store told me the precious metal shelves were bare or they had at most a few bullion coins. If you check eBay, you’ll see that 2008 silver American eagle coins (1oz) are currently selling for around $19-$20 or more per ounce – plus shipping and insurance. (You can buy it for slightly cheaper by the roll – 20 one ounce coins)

So what’s the deal here and why is physical silver (and gold) selling for so much more than the “spot” price? There are several reasons but this article sums it up with more insight than a hobo like myself dare bother with.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6952.html

The article is about gold, but the same thing applies to silver. In fact, it applies to silver in a much more drastic extent since the physical silver market is substantially smaller than the physical gold market.

I don’t necessarily agree with the prediction in the article (that the U.S. Dollar will hit a hyper-inflationary state and collapse within the next 30 days), but it certainly is possible and when the dollar fails (as all fiat currencies eventually do), it’s almost certain that it’ll be a sudden explosive event that triggers hyperinflation and takes the majority of people by surprise. The Dollar losing status as the world’s reserve currency could be a large part in this but that won’t necessarily be the case, especially when the U.S. government is so willingly creating massive amounts of new money out of thin air.

So check out the link above and get better informed about the “money” pretending to represent your wealth. And while you’re at it, check out this informative article about “Exploding Debt Dynamics”.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6971.html

I only push these articles so that you can be better informed, and take steps to protect yourself against the financial problems that will eventually destroy the life savings of millions of people (and has already destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth in retirement, savings, and investment accounts). It may not happen now, but with a fiat currency (such as the U.S. Dollar and most of the world currencies), it will happen eventually. And even if it doesn’t happen in our lifetime (which I doubt unless you’re as old as John McCain), you’ll still be better informed and prepared to protect your wealth for the future.

Enjoy the info and please start taking steps to protect yourself, your family, and your financial future. And if you haven’t figured out the trend yet… put your money in tangibles, tangibles, tangibles.

We face some scary times ahead but the destructive blows will be substantially reduced if you take the time to educate yourself on what’s really going on and take the necessary steps to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your livelihood.

Good investing.