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Silver is not simply being treated as an industrial (non-monetary) metal. Silver is the most heavily shorted commodity in the world and the bulk of these shorts are held by a few big banks, i.e. “bullion banks”, the “too-big-to-fail” banks that are at the root of fiat currency manipulation/creation.

Bullion banks are allowed to illegally short the COMEX with “naked shorts”, i.e. they sell huge amounts of silver they don’t own using paper contracts. The regulatory agencies allow this because it acts to support the value of the US fiat currency, the dollar. 8 bullion banks are short at least 156 days of global silver production, so any large rise in silver prices will create enormous losses for these banks amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. The banks will always act to prevent such losses.

Dumping hundreds of millions of ounces of silver (in the form of naked shorts) on the market (sold all at the same time) drives prices down. The banks then buy back paper contracts at a lower price and make lots of money. This process has gone on for decades, causing the bullion banks to build up huge short positions, This acts to keep silver prices artificially suppressed, which serves the purpose of creating the illusion that fiat currencies are relatively stable in comparison with silver, which historically was always a monetary metal, as was gold.

Gold was also suppressed as a monetary metal for the same reasons as silver — to make fiat currencies look stable. This became necessary when US gold reserves dropped precipitously during the Vietnam War, leading Nixon to decouple gold from the dollar (abrogating the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944).Once the dollar was no longer redeemable for gold, the US was free to create as many dollars as it wished

[Note: The dollars are created by privately owned banks named “The Federal Reserve”; the name helps promote the illusion that the Fed is part of the US Federal government — it is just as much part of the Federal government as is FedEx. The dollars, created out of thin air, are “loaned” to the US Treasury, which makes no sense because the Treasury has the right to create dollars, so this is another immense crime perpetrated on the American people.]

The gold market is a much larger market than the silver market, and above ground stocks of gold far exceed those of silver (industrial uses of silver act to constantly use up above ground silver stocks). This makes the gold market harder to suppress than the silver market.

Gold recently has been again classified as a Tier One Asset in the banking industry — it is money again! This fact, combined with the general perception that all the fiat currencies in the world are being greatly inflated has led to a relentless increase in the price of gold. But through price suppression, the price of silver has not been allowed to follow at the same pace, hence the gold-sliver ratio has risen higher and higher. Rising demand for silver by both industry and investors has been driving silver prices higher, causing the bullion banks to progressively increase their short positions.

The ratio in value of gold to silver was for centuries about 16 to 1 (gold-silver ratio of 16); 16 ounces of silver could be exchanged for 1 ounce of gold.The gold-silver ratio, as Rubino notes, has risen above 100, creating an extreme distortion of the reality that the natural ratio is 10 to 1 — that is the ration that silver comes out of the ground relative to gold.

I think the gold-silver ratio will continue to rise until some event blows up the system. At present, it seems that a huge war will create that event. Until recently, it seemed the main risk of a new World War lay in the proxy war the US has waged against Russia in Ukraine. I don’t think that risk has gone away. However, another major war now seems imminent in the Middle East, as the US is preparing to attack Iran at the behest of Israel (this is not the way to “Make America Great Again” — far from it).

A US/Israeli war against Iran will succeed in stopping 20% of global oil from coming through the Straits of Hormuz, as well as destroying much of the oil production facilities of Saudi Arabia and other oil producers in the region. Oil prices will go to hundreds of dollars per barrel and this will blow up Western financial markets.

If and when this occurs, price suppression of silver will quickly come to an end. So will what we have previously considered to be normal lives in the US.