SGS Notes: Our key article this week is quite lengthy but very informative … I hope you will take the time to click the 'Read More' to see the full article… we are only able to publish the initial portion of it below:

The Coming Paradigm Shift in Silver

Steve St. Angelo

The biggest problem for investors today in trying to forecast the future price of silver is the enormous amount of contradictory analysis on the Internet. There are bulls, bears, paper traders, physical buyers, technical analysts, hedge funds, commercial banks and silver manufacturers all trying to play a part in this highly volatile silver market. Trying to sift through the huge volumes of silver analysis on the internet can be extremely frustrating. In addition, some of this information is not meant to inform, but rather to confuse or mislead the investor.

There is a great deal of misinformation on the internet when it comes to silver. I find it ironic that one of the so-called "bullion specialists" seems to give bearish commentary whenever the price of gold or silver rises to new highs. This is akin to a CEO of a corporation telling the media and shareholders that the company's stock price is too high and needs to drop down to more sustainable levels. What CEO on Earth would say something as stupid as this with the best interest of the company and shareholders in mind? Furthermore, how many CEOs would keep their job if they repeated this over and over for the past several years, and got it wrong time and time again?

Unless you have been in the precious metals markets for quite some time, it is easy to be misled by this type of information. This is the very reason behind the motivation that I had to write this article. In it, I will attempt to give the reader-investor a more detailed and fundamental comparative analysis of the future price of silver, rather than the typical fly-by-night technical charting or bull-bear rant. This should give a more commonsense methodology in forecasting the future path of silver and its eventual paradigm shift.

Paradigm Shift: -n, a radical change in underlying beliefs or theory

The coming paradigm shift in silver will not happen due to technical analysis, fundamentals, or supply & demand forces, but rather due to a change in mass psychology of investors. Even though fundamentals and supply-demand forces will play a part in this shift, they will not be the ultimate cause. I believe technical analysis as it is used today, only charts the amount of manipulation and mass psychology in the silver market.

Throughout history, a paradigm shift occurs in rigged markets when the manipulation of the financial system and economy is no longer sustainable. This occurred in the banking and housing markets in 2007-2008 when we had what I call a "Negative Paradigm Price Shift"- a trend where prices or values are declining.

Negative Paradigm Price Shift in Housing and Banking
Prior to 2007, the real estate market was kept alive by the work of clowns and magicians in the mortgage industry and banking system. For several years everyone was having a great time. As housing prices and sales continued towards the heavens, bank profits hit all-time records. Everything was going along just fine until the market realized one day that there was nothing left after "Liars Loans" were levied to keep the Ponzi going. Once the housing market collapsed, so too did the banking system. Like two twins attached at birth, one could not live without the other.

In true waterfall fashion, investment banks, commercial banks, government-sponsored entities and insurance companies went bankrupt, were either taken over or became a mere shadow of their former selves.

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Thus, the fight over gold and silver as media of exchange is about more than mere money, let alone making money. For it is a fight with only two possible outcomes: either control of their own lives by the people themselves, or control of the people and their lives by political and economic elitists.

- Dr. Edwin Vieira

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The Banker's New Gold

Jeff Nielson
BullionBulls, Canada

In a fresh sign of bankster desperation, we recently learned that they have pushed lease rates for gold to the lowest, negative level in history - i.e. they are paying people more money to "borrow" their gold than at any other time. We know this is a sign of desperation, because back in the real world, buyers are paying premiums near record-highs to buy their (real) gold.
There are numerous implications regarding this latest bankster tactic to suppress the gold market, but before getting into those let's explore all of the reasons why bankers like "leasing gold" in the first place. The starting point is to note that it is with gold-leasing that we see the beginnings of the banksters' 100:1 leverage in the gold market.

A banker is holding a quantity of gold in his vault. He "lends" the gold to a trader, and suddenly you havetwo parties both pretending to be the "owners" of that gold. Naturally, the banksters also like the fact that this is a totally opaque, unregulated/unreported transaction. The banksters can secretly lend out their gold, and since the transactions are never reported, we lack the absolute proof that none of this "loaned gold" is ever repaid.

There is certainly plenty of circumstantial evidence on which to base such a conclusion, however. In order to review this evidence, we first need to know what is being done with the bankers' leased gold. A detailed analysis by veteran precious metals commentator Frank Veneroso explains how and why "The ultimate borrowers in the gold lending operation are these shorts in the gold futures and forward market."

We immediately see a second reason the bankers love gold-leasing: all of the "leased" gold ends up being shorted onto the market. What this directly implies then is that in order for these gold leases to ever be repaid the short positions must be closed out so that the gold (supposedly) backing the trade can be repatriated to the bank. However, what we see in the gold market is a huge, permanent short position in the gold market - which has swelled enormously since Veneroso wrote the article above nearly a decade ago.
We now know that at least some of these gold leases have never been repaid, since the gold that was loaned out remains on the market. However, as a matter of simple arithmetic we can deduce that few if any of these leases are ever repaid. As I noted above, each gold lease creates "paper gold" (i.e. a "fractional reserve" gold market) and increases the bankers' leverage in the gold market.

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SGS Notes: This week the GATA Gold Rush 2011 Conference was held in London. GATA is the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committe (http://www.gatagoldrush.com/ ) ... and we've seen material in the past from Andrew Maguire, Bill Murphy, and Ted Butler and others who have been actively involved in fighting the precious metals' manipulation over the years. Speakers this week at the conference include such big names as James Turk, Eric Sprott, Hugo Salinas Price, John Embry, Jim Sinclair... you've read articles by these folks and others in the SGS Newsletter since we began it.

The issue of the possible re-monetization of gold and silver is a hot one as we watch fiat currencies around the globe crumble into ruin. It's been on our radar screen at SGS since we began in 2008. There are many credible experts that believe it is coming faster than a speeding freight train... Bix Weir, of Road To Roota, is one such person. He has long been associated with GATA. As the world wakes up to the fiat schemes of the central bankers, there will be a rush... supplies will be in limitation... prices will skyrocket...

Dorothy's Silver Shoes or The Re-monetization of  Silver Currency of the United States of America

Hugo Salinas Price

President, Mexican Civic Association Pro Silver

www.plata.com.mx

Download article + bonus article, Gold Standard Generator & Protection Of Jobs

Why not re-monetize the silver dollar? Re-monetization could put the silver dollar and its subsidiary silver coinage into circulation in parallel with FRNs – “Federal Reserve Notes”.

There are several reasons that make this action possible, and only one that might be considered as an unimportant material obstacle.

In favor:

The silver dollar is the money that is still the Constitutional “coin of the realm”, defined by Act of Congress as 371.25 grains of pure silver. (The Troy ounce contains 480 grains.)

The silver dollar is familiar or at least known to almost all Americans.
A considerable quantity of these silver dollars is owned by Americans.

The silver dollar is a cherished symbol of a great past.

The monetized silver dollar would ignite a desire to save such as America has perhaps never seen before. The very first thing that must be done, to encourage people to save, is to give them something worth saving. As the US government gallops toward the abyss of bankruptcy by unlimited spending, the American people desperately require a refuge for their savings!

In this writer’s opinion, a large majority of the American people can see themselves as owners of silver money and, if a poll were taken, one can imagine that most Americans would express themselves in favor of silver money. Not so with gold, towards which the American people have little emotional attachment: gold is seen as the money of the élite. William Jennings Bryan exploited this fundamental attitude of the American people with his “Cross of Gold” speech. (Note: this should not be taken as disparaging gold; it is simply the statement of an opinion about the attitude of Americans regarding gold.)

Against:

The silver dollar bears a value stamped upon it: “One Dollar”.

***

The branch of government which the Constitution has designated as the agency “to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof” is the Treasury.

If the Treasury were to monetize the silver dollar coin by attributing to it a monetary value in terms of FRNs - “Federal Reserve Notes” - the public would very probably ignore the inscription of “One Dollar” upon the coin and accept it as legal tender money for the amount of the Treasury quote given to it. It would not be necessary to explain that twice, to anyone owning a silver dollar coin! In a short time, people would regard the term “One Dollar” as the name of a coin, rather than as a numeric indicator of legal tender value.

Determining the value of the silver dollar falls quite nicely into the Constitutional mandate to the Treasury: “To coin money [and] regulate the value thereof…”

How would the Treasury go about determining a quote to regulate the value of the silver dollar? Let bureaucrats and lawyers write books about how it should be done; here it is in a few words:

Suppose the price of silver bullion is $35 per ounce.

The silver dollar contains 77.34166% of a Troy ounce.

$35 X .7734166 = $27.07, the value of the silver in the silver dollar.

The Treasury will quote the silver dollar’s value in FRNs, with a margin of 15%, and round the figure to the next highest multiple of four:

$27.07 X 1.15 = $31.13, rounded up to $32.

The silver dollar as a legal tender coin worth $32 FRNs. The American public would eagerly purchase these silver dollars, worth $32 FRN dollars, and which could be used for all transactions without any haggling. The silver dollar worth $32 FRNs could even be deposited for that value in banks, if anyone had a mind to do such a thing.

If the price of silver rose to $37.61, the margin of profit of the Treasury, or seigniorage as it is formally known, would be reduced to 10%; at that point, a new and higher quote would be issued, to restore the 15% profit of the Treasury:

$37.61 X .7734166 = $29.09 value of silver in the silver dollar X 1.15 = $33.45, rounded up to $36 FRNs - 36 being the next highest multiple of four.

Why “the next highest multiple of four”? Because by doing so, the result would be the re-monetization of the entire silver currency system of the United States as it existed up until the Sixties of the last century.

In the last example, the silver half-dollars would automatically be worth $18 FRNs, the quarter-dollars would be worth $9 FRNs, and the dimes would be worth one-tenth of the silver dollar: $3.60 FRNs.

As pointed out in many articles at www.plata.com.mx, in the section in English, the last quote of the Treasury would remain firm and not subject to reduction, just as if the value in FRNs had been re-stamped upon the coin. The Treasury quote would simply take the place of a stamped quote, which cannot be reduced. The Treasury quote would only be raised, to follow the rising price of silver. In this way, the silver dollar would be a coin that would remain in use permanently.

This program would return the silver dollar and its subsidiary silver coinage of half-dollars, quarters and dimes to the American people in such a way as never to disappear again: all rises in the price of silver would be matched with rises in the quoted monetary value of the silver dollar and by derivation, of its subsidiary coinage: the silver half-dollar, the quarter and the dime.

This program would not cost the Federal Government – or the taxpayers that support it – one single cent! And yet, it would constitute the greatest gift to the American people that any US Congress could possibly invent, next only in importance to the return of the Gold Standard. The restoration of the silver currency of the United States to circulation, in parallel with the fiat FRN, can be considered the prelude to the revived Gold Standard.

By paying the Treasury a premium of 15% over the bullion price of silver, the American people would actually be subsidizing the Treasury’s work of monetization. This cost would be a one-time cost of obtaining real money of permanent value and utility, independent of the Fed and the banking system.

The re-monetization of the silver currency of the United States would create a new, vast market for physical silver and drive the price of silver very much higher. Those who might not be able to afford the purchase of monetized silver dollars could purchase half-dollars, quarters or dimes, which would provide the same security: they too, would rise with the rise in the price of silver. The rise in the price of silver would affect gold, which would also rise in price.

In order to facilitate larger transactions in silver, the Treasury could once again issue “Silver Certificates” attesting to the existence of silver held in its vaults.

With regard to the present faux-silver coinage in circulation, the American people are too intelligent to be deceived by it; this coinage may remain in circulation until the Treasury issues new coins for the purpose of making change in small transactions.

Though the restored silver currency may legally circulate, in practice it will be saved in its entirety and only be used in cases of emergency. Its “velocity of circulation” will be effectively close to zero.

******

Dorothy wore silver shoes, in L. Frank Baum’s classic book. Silver shoes on the yellow brick road! Dorothy symbolized then and still does today, the American people. Dorothy was unaware of the magic power of her silver shoes – and the American people are still equally unaware of the magic power of the re-monetized silver dollar: the power to recover America as the land of Hope and Opportunity!

What are the obstacles to regaining the silver dollar as money which can circulate in parallel with Federal Reserve Notes? The main obstacle will be the weapon of fear wielded by the entrenched interests of banking and the Federal Reserve, the intellectual centre of the banking cartel. These fiat money-mongers will rely on generating fear of the consequences of silver money so that they can maintain their huge fraud of fiat money FRNs; the Fed and the “Too Big to Fail” Banks are deathly afraid of the competition of silver. They know that the slightest crack in their monopoly of issuing fiat money will expose their scheme.

The Fed and the banking system will without doubt claim that “silver money is very costly”, but they will certainly not mention that the American people will fall over themselves to acquire it and even pay a premium of 15% to the Treasury, for the blessing of owning real money. Nor will the Fed and the banking system ever mention the gigantic costs that the depreciating FRNs have inflicted upon American savers; nor will they wish to recognize that the fiat FRN and the Fed are directly responsible for the present financial and economic destruction of the once great United States of America.

Another objection which will be put forward forcefully is that what the American economy requires is more spending on the part of the public. They will argue that more savings on the part of the American people spells doom for the economy: “More drink for the drunkard” is essential, according to the prevailing Keynesian thinking.

However, the humbug wizard has already been exposed and the Fed has lost its prestige forever. Toto has drawn the curtain! The State of Utah has already voiced its dissatisfaction with the present monetary system, by legislating in favor of gold and silver as legal tender money. If this project - monetizing the silver dollar by the Treasury’s giving it a numeric monetary value in FRNs, which immediately places it alongside the Federal Reserve Note as money – if this project comes to the notice of the several States of the Union, they together may force the issue.

The present policy is to “kick the can down the road” and postpone the final reckoning. But, the end of the road is already in sight! The condition is one of utter helplessness. The re-monetization of the silver dollar is the first step toward regaining health for the economy of America. Paper, fiat money will probably remain in use for some time, but the presence of the monetized silver dollar will force the Federal Reserve, the banking system and the US Government itself, to a more prudent financial course. It will be possible to regain financial health, because an alternative is available. Savings, the foundation of prosperity, will bloom as Americans opt for massive voluntary austerity by saving monetized silver dollars, half-dollars, quarters and dimes.

The banking system in the United States will be anxious to receive the massive savings in silver of the American people as deposits, but this will only be possible when the price of silver bullion has stabilized. Thus, the American people will have the upper hand; they will bend the banking system to their will by refusing to deposit their silver in the banks and thus force the banking system to reform itself to prudent monetary practice and desist from inflating by expanding credit out of nothing. After a stabilization of the banking system, the way would be open to a resumption of the Gold Standard.

Americans are today caught in a financial calamity with no parallel in history. They are being told this every day by every medium of communication. But they watch their crumbling economy in utter paralysis, because there is no alternative to which they may turn. The whole world is a mirror of their plight.

The restoration of the silver currency of the United States of America by the very simple procedure outlined here can provide the life-saving alternative. There is, at present, no other practical proposal for a viable action in the field of money. Perhaps there can be no other practical proposal? Perhaps a return to silver money is the only path out of the present crisis of civilization?

Let us hope that a political leader in the United States understands this message. The popular appeal of silver is universal; “silver shoes” will take that leader far – and the American people will follow him on that road!

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SGS Notes: This week's news has centered around the debt ceiling, the budget 'crisis', and the impending economic crises for Europe, Italy, Greece (again)... all of these things are having an impact on gold and silver prices.

Central Banks Unanimously Prefer Gold Over Paper

Jeff Nielson

After the Western banking cabal engineered the "crash" of the global gold market in 1980, Western central banks spent more than a quarter-century perpetrating the lie that gold was a "barbarous relic" - which was supposedly "inferior" to the worthless, un-backed paper they were cranking out (in record amounts) on their privately-owned printing presses.

Their incentive was obvious. In getting the entire world to believe that lie, they were able to enrich themselves by $10's of trillions of dollars. This was done by creating those $10's of trillions ("out of thin air"), pretending that this paper actually represented real wealth - and then getting people all over the world to give them $trillions more paying interest on worthless paper which never represented any real wealth in the first place.

While it was the largest fraud (and theft) in the history of the world (by a factor of more than 1,000), it was by no means an original act of fraud - being nothing more than the same scam which all bankers always perpetrate, whenever they are (foolishly) granted the privilege of inventing "money" out of thin air, going back a thousand years.

During the first twenty-five years of this institutionalized fraud/theft, the bankers supported their fraud by dumping their vast hoards of gold onto the market (in the largest quantities in history). "Look," they would say, pointing with their evil talons, "Even we bankers, the greediest creatures ever hatched on this planet, have no use for this archaic, yellow metal - so why would any of you want to own it?"

The price of gold was pushed to an all-time low (in real dollars), so low that more than 90% of the world's gold mines were forced to close since they couldn't manage to break-even at those fraud-induced prices. And individual holdings of gold (especially in the West) fell to their lowest level in history.

Obviously, with that privilege to print money not having been revoked yet (a literal "license to steal"), their incentive to continue this fraud/theft is as strong as ever. However, over the past five years a "funny" thing has occurred. First these central banks rapidly slowed their dumping of gold, then they stopped it altogether, and now they are the single-largest bloc of gold-buyers on the planet.

Recent statistics released by the World Gold Council allow us to go even further. Over the past two years, the world's central banks have demonstrated a 100% unanimous preference for gold over their own banker-paper (i.e. all those un-backed "fiat currencies"). During that span of time, only three nations have been modest "net sellers" of gold - and in all three cases this related to "long term sales agreements" (i.e. old obligations). During the past two years, not one single central bank on the face of the Earth has chosen to be a net-seller of gold over that time.

I drive a Toyota

Let me construct an analogy here. A person goes shopping for a car. He goes to a Ford dealership, and after getting the full "sales pitch" on what wonderful vehicles all Ford products are, the shopper asks the salesman "what kind of car do you drive?" And the salesman answers "I drive a Toyota."

The car-shopper then goes to a GM dealership, a Chrysler dealership, a Volkswagen dealership, and every other auto-dealership he can find. At each dealership, the salesman tells the shopper what "wonderful vehicles" they make, but when the shopper asks each one what car they drive themselves, every one replies "Toyota". The obvious question to ask is that armed with such data, is there a single (rational) auto-buyer who would buy anything other than a Toyota?

The equally obvious answer is that "no", no rational buyer would ever choose any vehicle other than a Toyota - unless he/she simply couldn't afford the purchase price.

The most charitable statement we can make about the world's central bankers is that they are the world's "sellers of money". Indeed, since I have already pointed out that what they are selling is worthless, we could obviously come up with a long list of terms less-neutral than "sellers". Unquestionably, with armies of statisticians and data-gatherers at their disposal, they are the world's foremost experts on "money" (assuming we generously include their fiat currencies with that label).

Much like a hypothetical world where all the sellers of automobiles (who know these cars the best) all buy a single brand of automobile themselves, all of the world's foremost experts on "money" are showing a 100% preference for one kind of money: gold. The message from the world's central bankers is absolutely unequivocal: only chumps would choose to hold paper over gold.

Clearly, the massive paper-fraud of these banksters is in its final stages of decay: a Ponzi-scheme of unimaginable proportions, where people willingly funneled $trillions of their own wealth into the clutches of Western bankers - only to ultimately end up with zero (or near-zero, or less-than-zero). We know this, because the scammers themselves are now publicly fleeing from their own scam.

Ironically, the same, semi-comatose mainstream media which still alerts us when "insiders" in our equity markets are "dumping" their shares, has been 100% oblivious to the "insiders" in our monetary markets dumping their banker-paper (in favor of gold). The parallel cannot be missed: when corporate insiders are unanimously dumping their shares, only the "Mother of All Fools" would be a buyer in equity markets. When all of the world's monetary "insiders" are dumping their banker-paper in favor of gold, only an equivalent "fool" would attempt to swim against that tide.

To avoid getting "lynched" by all of the silver-bulls who follow my work, let me take a moment to include silver in this analysis. To begin with, if anything the bankers have even more fear/hatred of silver than gold. However, their hatred/aversion to silver is so extreme that rather than merely lie about silver (so people would not want to hold it), and then hoarding as much as possible themselves, they decided on the "nuclear option": destroying the world's stockpiles of silver. The only reason why the world's central banks have shown no interest in silver is because inventories have been decimated to such an extreme (more than 90% lower than 15 years ago) that (relative to gold) there is no silver for the central banks to start hoarding.

At the household level, the world's silver shortage is not yet that extreme. We can still buy what we want/need as individuals - and at "sale" prices, thanks to the recent ambush of the silver market by the CME Group. Of particular relevance, for those small investors who are finding the price of gold moving out of their "reach", silver remains accessible - and a fantastic bargain.

Short of B.S. Bernanke starting to walk around with a neon sign hanging around his neck saying "buy gold", it is impossible for ordinary investors to get any clearer warning that "cash is trash" and bullion is "golden". Ignore such a warning at your own peril.

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Silver is a Powder Keg
Waiting To Explode
Andy Schectman, CEO
Miles Franklin

SGS Notes: This week's article was too long for one newsletter, so we've split it up into 2 parts. This week will deal with historical and established silver demand; Part 2 will deal with Future Trends and silver's role in them. Meanwhile, if you haven't been watching silver and gold prices lately, you'll note that in the past week, we've seen a rise again in silver from the $34 range to the $36 range, and gold from the $1490s to the mid $1500 range and a drop of the gold:silver ratio of 2 points...

Silver and Industrial Demand - Part I

Jeff Lewis

I. Introduction

As you know, silver is much more than just a form of money. Although not often discussed in great detail, silver is actually an incredibly important and strategic industrial commodity. In fact, demand for silver by industry has increased dramatically in recent years and shows no signs of slowing despite price fluctuations.

Silver's incredible versatility - as a conductor, a catalyst, an antibacterial agent and much more - and unrealistically low prices have made it ideal for use in a huge number of products spanning countless manufacturing sectors. And the continued (relative) affordability of this super-metal points to dramatically increased demand in coming years.

As silver investors and educators, we feel that understanding silver's tremendous role(s) in industry (along side its importance as a store of wealth) is critical to understanding its past, present and future value. In fact, we are confident that you will find the insight and knowledge gained to be crucial for maintaining perspective as we head through the upcoming currency storm.

Ironically, if not miraculously, we find ourselves at the cutting edge of technology, while simultaneously, re-aligning with what also happens to be an excellent, proven, and historic form of wealth preservation - and money. Not to mention it is becoming increasingly scarce!

To broaden your understanding of silver's industrial applications, we're examining past and current industrial demand and looking forward toward what is expected to be a very bright future for this powerful and increasingly rare metal.

Growing Industrial Demand

As recently as 1990, total annual demand for silver by industry was about 273 million ounces (Moz). This represented about 39 percent of the total amount of silver fabricated each year. By 2000, industrial demand represented over 40 percent of total fabrication. And as of 2007, it had climbed to an all-time high of 465 Moz annually - or 55 percent of total fabrication - where, despite a downturn related to the global economic crisis that began in 2008, it is approximately today.

This upward trend is expected to continue, with annual industrial silver consumption growing from about 487 Moz in 2010 to approximately 666 Moz in 2015. This increase in demand will come from growth in both long-established industrial uses of silver and some intriguing new applications.

Established Industrial Applications

Silver's superiority as an electrical conductor makes it ideally suited for use in batteries and electrical contacts. Silver is used widely in automobiles (the list of core automotive applications is growing) and, in the form of a highly conductive paste, in photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells - which convert solar energy into electricity - are already in great demand as concerns about dwindling fossil-fuel supplies grow. Photovoltaics also promises to play a key role in the drive toward clean energy sources in coming years. In fact, silver demand for use in photovoltaic cells is expected to double by 2015.

Emerging Industrial Applications

Thanks to silver's unmatched conductivity and relative affordability, it has become a critical element in the manufacture of a great variety of electronic devices - many of which have become important (and largely taken for granted) parts of our daily lives. Because silver-containing batteries manage energy output in very small packages, they are widely used in smart phones, laptops, and tablets, demand for which seems to be virtually limitless.

Other new applications capitalize on silver's powerful antibacterial properties. Silver-bearing products ranging from socks to cosmetics are appearing on the market with increasing frequency.

Because, in many of its industrial applications, silver performs much better than its possible replacements (if they exist), industry shows little interest in moving away from it toward less expensive or more abundant materials. So long as silver continues to be relatively inexpensive, and consumers don't lose their appetites for silver-containing products - which doesn't seem likely - industrial demand for silver will continue to grow.

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Peter Schiff on
numismatic vs. bullion

SGS Notes: :Yes, silver took it on the chin this week. What we have seen in the dramatic price drop for silver and gold has been a carefully orchestrated manipulation of prices by some powerful folks in high places… If you have been following the SGS newsletter for very long, you would know that we've been reporting on this faithfully from the beginning. It's been going on for several years now… and with all the exposé going on by some honest and persistent men in the industry, the fire is heating up under this issue. So this week I am devoting the newsletter to the various commentaries from these people who have reported the truth about what's happening. There's a lot to 'feast on' this week.

This is NOT a normal 'market correction' as some would have us think…Remember that investing in physical silver and gold is not the same as paper … yet the dynamics in paper have a dramatic effect on physical. (Also noteworthy this week… huge difference in Gold:Silver ratio… last week was 32:1

Bear in mind, that all of manipulation forcing prices downward have long-term effects on this market beyond the prices… it creates a disincentive for mines to produce and refine silver… a disincentive for research & development on new sources for silver. Consequently, there is a very real shortage of phyical metals in the market…

And, again, the warning is issue repeatedly: Hold on for the Long Haul. This is NOT the time to SELL… it is the time to ACQUIRE.

Silver Shield: The Final Fight

This is the final fight of physical and paper silver, so hold the line and get ready to take it to the enemy. The Elite have literally thrown everything they have at the silver markets to try to make silver investors weak in the knees and cry uncle. Like a bully trying to take your lunch money by twisting your arm.

This can only end one of two ways; you give up and the banksters laugh or you stand up and say enough! These tactics may work on some paper traders who are literally forced by margin calls. For those who have listened to me, and bought only physical, this recent manipulation is only a subsidized discount to buy more, for less.

The CME has raised the margin requirements an unprecedented 5 times in less than 2 weeks to force higher and higher costs on paper traders to force them to sell. The higher the costs and the lower the price of the underlying asset is a toxic combination in the paper market.

I saw this happen in the 2008 rout, where they took it down 60% in a matter of months. It was the worst time to be a silver holder, but I knew the real story and held on when everything in the world said get out. I held on and even added to my position to then see a return of close to 500% in the next 2 years.

Read Entire Article Here

Collusion by Fed Officials and Commodity Exchange Heads Has Its Intended Effect
Trader Dan

I find it amazing how effectively these people can coordinate their policies with the heads of the commodity exchanges and their pals at the big banks who are perennial shorts in the markets and have now managed to pluck the money out of hundreds of thousands of commodity trading accounts enriching the big banks (government sponsored hedge funds) in the process. Nothing like a freely operating financial system where the playing field is completely level and no one has an advantage over the next guy!

By their continued hiking of silver margins, the exchange effectively removed the liquidity in the silver market that the smaller specs have been providing. That left the market vulnerable to severe drops in price as these specs exited due to financial constraints which then removed a source of potential bids under the market as the CFTC commitments report has shown the small specs to be good buyers in the silver market. Even the bigger hedge funds are impacted by such a sharp hike in margins as their losses in silver then precipitate even more losses across other assorted commodity markets due to the cascading effect of mounting paper losses and margin calls and the need to raise cash.

As the silver market tanked the exchange officials could then warn about Clearinghouse integrity and have more reasons to drive margins even higher as they point to the increased volatility, volatility which I might add, they created themselves by hiking margins to such an extreme degree. Read Full Article Here

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• Longer wait times for our inventory orders
  
  
• Higher Premiums, especially for Silver Eagles
  
  
• Product sell-out (from our suppliers)
  

Honoring All Our Mothers…

SGS Notes: The crazy ride continued this week…the week began Monay with a sharp rise from $46.86 to$47.88, then Tuesday spike up into the high $49s… closely pressing the $50 threshhold…then back down by end of day to just over $45. By Wednesday night, the price was back to the mid $48 level, continuing strongly in that range until close of week Friday night. The ratio has remained constant at 32/1… but we've also seen Gold do a huge $58 spike this week. The dollar went to 73.2 in the wake of the S&P downgrading the US credit rating down to C - lower than Mexico… We've had several inquiries this week about whether silver is still a good buy at $50+… This week's newsletter will be addressing that…

Psst! Letting you in on a little 'secret'… if you watch our Facebook page for SGS, (see link at right) you will see a flurry of activity of postings on Fri/Sat … this is because we post a lot of articles and links that we come across while preparing for the Newsletter, but 'reject' for newsletter publication… lots more extra stuff there, folks!

The Reason Silver Has Been Rising Faster Than Gold
Analysis of the different advance which has occurred in the silver price vis-à-vis gold in the past few months where the former has substantially outperformed the latter.
Author: Julian Phillips, MineWeb

Silver is breaking new records at around $40 and gold is touching new highs of close to $1,460. Looking back, over the past few years we have seen gold rise from around $312 to $1,460 a rise of 4.68 times and silver from around $6 to $40 a rise of 6.67 times.

But this does not give a clear picture, so we went back over the last year and what did we see? Since early 2009, gold has moved from $900 to $1,460, a respectable 62%. Over the same period silver has moved from $10 to nearly $40 a remarkable 400%. Why the difference in relative performance?

Both metals have moved as money. Gold and silver Exchange Traded Funds have attracted massive investments in the developed world where trust in the monetary system is far higher than it is in the emerging world. But it was the underlying gold and silver that attracted investors. Waning confidence in the value of paper currencies gave way to demand for precious metals as a store of value retainers for investors.

Gold and silver have substantial differences as value retainers which help us to identify why the two metals have differed so much in performance.

Gold is and has always been the 'senior' monetary metal held by Central Banks as money until 1971 and after that as a valuable reserve asset in the vaults of central banks.
Silver was rejected as money and as a reserve asset by the mid-fifties, despite it being treated as money throughout the ages before that.

Both gold and silver have been attacked as money through 'official' sales from the seventies until last year. But gold was sold to undermine the reality that it is money. Silver was sold out from reserves almost completely by central banks discarding it as money, completely.

Apart from a brief period when Egypt was at its height and supplies of silver less than those of gold, gold has always been in far shorter supply than silver and considered far more valuable than silver.

Silver in the past few decades has been seen as a commodity, mined mainly as a by-product of base metal mining, with only 30% mined in a pure silver mine.

Most silver is consumed whereas gold is not, which will continue to be the case until less expensive substitutes are found. This will only happen at far higher prices still.

GOLD AS AN INVESTMENT

Gold has always been the precious metal of choice for wealthy individuals, institutions and central banks. It has never been abandoned as such. Even when "Official" selling was at its peak, central banks sold only what they thought was sufficient to add credibility to the paper currency they were pushing to the centre of the system, first to add credibility to the dollar then after 1999 to the euro. With those tasks completed, Central Banks are now either holders or buyers of gold.

The amount sold in most cases was around 20%, but in the case of the uninspired then-Chancellor Brown of the U.K.'s case, half of Britain's reserves were sold. The largest holders of gold sold none or only small amounts. So while it was underpriced and we believe still is, did not see its price 'crushed' completely.

The path back to investment acceptance is a slow one and a long one with most of the journey still to come. We believe that we are on the brink of major changes in price levels in 2011 and beyond.

SILVER AS AN INVESTMENT

Silver had not really been an investment metal until 2004 and not a significant one until 2009.

It was a commodity metal in so short a supply that the Hunt brothers of Texas felt they could corner the market. In 1979, they took the silver price from its high of $8 an ounce [it had doubled since it stood at $4 an ounce in the mid- 1970s' already] to $50 an ounce by the early 1980's. It then fell all the way back to $5 an ounce thereafter as the Hunt Brothers found they were unable to sell the silver until prices had fallen back to those levels where they stayed until October 2003. Until 2009, it was relegated to the sidelines as an investment metal.

It started to regain popularity as an investment metal because it began to be considered as "poor man's gold" as the gold price rose out of reach of the poorer investment classes.

For instance, in India until its middle classes began to grow substantially, 70% of all gold bought was bought by the agricultural sector, whose income was directly related to the quality of the monsoon rains. When profits were good, they found their way into property and into gold, As the price rose, the quantity of gold available to such people fell. Then $1,500 bought five ounces of gold, but with gold at $1,460, it only buys just over 1 ounce of gold.

In India, precious metals are used in commercial transactions so the divisibility of silver relative to gold was far greater and more flexible. It also remained affordable in larger quantities. After all, now one ounce of gold buys 36.5 ounces of silver. So, silver remains affordable far lower down the economic ladder than gold does. It therefore can attract a far wider market than gold does currently at retail levels. Bearing in mind that precious metals are attracting a huge and growing market in the emerging parts of the world, the demand, as a wealth protector, at the retail end of the market is expanding rapidly.

CATCH-UP

It would therefore be wrong to still categorize silver as a monetary metal. Its day will come, but not until its price is much higher and not until paper currencies have lost considerably more credibility than at present.

The most difficult part of silver's rise as a wealth protector has been from October 2004 to October 2008, from when its price moved from $5 an ounce to a peak of over $20 an ounce then to fall back to than less $10 an ounce before taking off on its current path. The fall coincided with the onset of the 'credit-crunch.

All the while, demand from the photographic sector has waned. More importantly, the uses of silver have morphed from discretionary demand to a need. Even in a downturn, the demand for silver will remain strong as its uses are considered vital now.

So as a non-monetary, more volatile precious metal, its future then was far cloudier than now. The transition from those days to 'poor man's gold was its re-birth as an investment metal. While we believe it has now returned as such to stay, it still has a lot of catching up to do. By catching up we mean that it still has to return to the concept fully, that it is a lower category investment metal respected from institutions [eventually by central banks] as well as the retail end of the market.

Gold is already at that point. This does not mean that the gold price has reached a ceiling of any kind. It does mean that the gold price will rise relative to the value of currencies from now on with its metallic qualities being far in the background. Silver is still a long way off from that point.

Julian Phillips is a long time specialist analyst for gold and silver and is the principal contributor to the Gold Forecaster - www.goldforecaster.com - and Silver Forecaster- www.silverforecaster.com - websites and newsletters

Quote of the Week                               

• Longer wait times for our inventory orders
  
  
• Higher Premiums, especially for Silver Eagles
  
  
• Product sell-out (from our suppliers)
  

SGS Notes: Whew! This week was a wild ride. (Did you notice the big drop in the ratio again?) I'm going to share a lot of info in the newsletter this week. As usual, the experts and economic advisors have been prolific in their writing the past 2 weeks. The S&P downgrading of the US credit rating was a HUGE factor in the numbers we're seeing. So read what you can now, bear with me, and stash this away for digesting the rest of the information as you are able. Let the dust settle a little this weekend and celebrate the MOST momentous occasion in history.

Your Money's No Good Here
Richard Zimmerman, Berkshire Asset Management

Fear premium seems like an understatement following the Standard and Poor's downgraded outlook for US debt. Markets reacted in kind, with and the threat of losing a AAA rating brought another round of potential haven seekers to gold and silver. What is it about the rating that is so special, and why should this change anything?

Let's get one thing clear - there were a few stories that reported the US' credit rating was lowered from neutral to negative. The Ratings Service actually lowered their outlook for US debt. The reasoning? They lack confidence that Washington will get the federal deficit under control in the next two years or so. The long term outlook suggests that there is a roughly 30 percent likelihood that the US will lose its current investment rating. That rating was actually reaffirmed in yesterday's Standard and Poor's release, but with paragraph after paragraph of concerns over the future growth and expenses for this western superpower.

The AAA rating is endangered by what the Standard and Poor's views as "very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us" - exactly the kinds of things that have been moving more than a little investment in precious metals. Unlike the US dollar, I have often reiterated that gold and silver are difficult to manipulate with changes in policy. However, the key issue here is the cracks in the foundation.

Since the start of the global recession, it was not uncommon to hear that a country was in trouble on the credit front. Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland - there is no shortage of areas of potential weakness. The thing is - it seemed a lot less dire when it was somewhere else. The idea that the Euro zone would have a country or two with fiscal weakness is one thing, but an industrialized nation of this size? The US is practically the backbone of a global economy, and one of the largest single economies in the framework of the world.

Perhaps it is more unsettling because of the scope of foreign investment in the United States. As of February 2011, China held over $1 trillion in US treasuries. Japan had a cool $890 billion. The United Kingdom and other nations held more modest levels, around $200 billion or so, for a grand total of $4,474,300,000. (1) Of course, Japan's finance minister was quick to state that US treasuries remained attractive, despite the warning against the US. China was less magnanimous. Their foreign ministry urged policy makers in Washington to move to protect investors in their debt. Besides debt obligations, foreign governments are probably eyeing their ample US dollar reserves. While it is anyone's guess how much of China's foreign currency reserves are dollar denominated, it cannot be comfortable on any level to see the recent troubles in the US devalue the currency. Uncertainty in the future of the US and the overall perceived risk of default has as much of a chance to drive investors from the US dollar and into other assets.

The Treasury Department's projection is that the debt-ceiling is within reach, to be breached as early as May. Default could come as early as this summer.

Summary

The US is unlikely to see the kind of real growth that the situation requires to sort out its massive deficit. Right now, the economic crisis has pared growth, and playing an eternal shell game with the fiscal deficit doesn't seem close to over. The diminished outlook in a superpower like the United States is enough to rattle even the most stalwart investor's cage. That means the chance for more investor uncertainty, and that usually means fresh highs in precious metals. The threat from Standard and Poor's was a surprise to a lot of people. Everyone seems to be aware that things are not perfect, and that public finances are relatively tattered. The short term key will be how people feel this credit ruin stands up to global counterparts. If the US is viewed as the 'best of the worst' as it were, this initial gain in gold and silver will likely be met with some pressure. If all it does is create talking points ahead of re-election promises then people are less likely to assuaged, and that means a harder currency than a feeble buck.

1. http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt

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Yes, we like Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged… which, by the way is out in theaters…We saw it last week, Part 1. Check it out here: http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/
Just picked up a copy of the book at Costco to re-read.

The Coming Retirement Trap...Has Started
Ron Holland

Mandatory IRAs just proposed by Obama Administration on 1/25/10 is the 1st step in stealth nationalization & forced investment of our retirement benefits to support the treasury debt market! Read the veiled report in Business Week.

A Personal Note from the Author

Dear Concerned American:
I begin with a quote from a politician who believed in an all-powerful central government and in using that power to achieve his vision for a nation. "He who has his thumb on the purse has the power." Otto von Bismarck, a statesman who created the modern Germany and known as the iron chancellor.

But however well-intentioned he might have been, he built the regulatory groundwork and government institutions for a centralized federal state that was later taken over by an evil political leader who created a tyranny seldom seen in the world before, or after. The tyranny started in 1933, 35 years after Bismarck's death, was National Socialism and the leader was Adolf Hitler. All of this came after Germany's military defeat in World War One and a national debt crisis, followed by hyperinflation and currency collapse.

I fear that today the control, nationalization and ultimate confiscation of trillions in private US retirement plan assets is on the horizon. Rick Santelli alluded to the possible nationalization and forced investment into treasuries on CNBC as recently as January 8, 2010. There was also similar coverage on Bloomberg and Business Week.

Reports out of Washington indicate that new retirement annuities may be promoted by Obama aides. This is just the beginning! The question every successful American with substantial retirement assets must ask is "what will you do if our retirement funds are forced to become the buyer of last resort for US treasury obligations?" Unless you believe Congress and Washington bureaucrats will do a fair job of allocating and distributing your personal retirement assets between yourself and others, you must begin now to protect your assets.

As the United States moves into a new decade of military overreach abroad and national bankruptcy at home, Washington is on a desperate search for more revenue and a solution to the future financing of the trillions in national debt obligations currently held by foreign central banks and investors. Economists, politicians and smart investors know the dollar's days as the world reserve currency are numbered, as is our ability to finance the national debt.

Although the historical government solution to unsustainable government debt loads has always been the destruction of the debts by currency depreciation and eventual hyperinflation, there is always an intermediate step used to buy more time for the politicians in power. This action, usually side-stepped and downplayed by the establishment historians paid to hide the real facts of history, is wealth confiscation. Napoleon had it right when he stated, "History is a state of lies agreed upon."

The largest source of liquid private wealth remaining in the United States is the $15 trillion in private retirement funds. The ultimate ownership, control and future of these funds has already been compromised and exchanged for the favorable tax treatment of private retirement plans. Congress writes the laws, so they can tax, penalize, hold your funds hostage and, although they'd never use the word "confiscate," use your assets at their discretion.

The retirement trap I'm writing about is only a proposal at the present time and since it may well begin in the latter years of the Obama Administration, assuming the Democrats can somehow maintain their majorities in Congress, I'm calling it the "Obama Retirement Trap." But make no mistake, the government need for current revenue and their frenzied search for liquidity to monetize their debt obligations is an unspoken quest of both political parties. The establishments of both political parties will do whatever it takes to stay in power, including the raiding and pillaging of your retirement funds.

Read rest of article here:

New Additions at Silver & Gold Shop                   

We announced this last week and are running it again for those who may have missed it: Please join me in welcoming David & Jodie Bowen to a new role with the SGS family. David and Jodie have been in a behind-the-scenes role with our order fulfillment department for the last year; but going forward, will be taking on a more active customer-facing role in sales, service, and handling special orders.

Mary Beth, who many of you are familiar with, will be changing her role to give attention to more of the behind-the-scenes administration and development of S&GS. Mary Beth, Jodie and David will be working together to provide a smooth transition in the coming weeks ahead. We believe these changes will only bring positive improvements to your ongoing experience at SGS.

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Why Increased Demand for Silver Will Have a Leveraged Effect on Its Price
Jeff Clark, BIG GOLD

How Much More Demand Can Silver Handle?

The numbers for silver demand are starting to make some market-watchers nervous. The U.S. Mint sold over 6.4 million silver Eagles in January, more than any other month since the coin's introduction in 1986. China's net imports of silver quadrupled in 2010, to 122.6 million ounces, roughly 13.7% of global production. Meanwhile, mine production can't meet worldwide demand; the only way demand gets fulfilled is from scrap supply.

That is some very hungry demand. Which raises the question, how long can this pace continue?

This is important for various reasons, starting with how demand contributes to price. If demand falls off, our investments could, too.

While I've discussed the concern regarding the lack of supply before, which has its own implications for the silver market, let's focus on investment demand. Frankly, is there room for it to continue to grow? After all, how long can investors continue to set records?

There are a number of ways to measure this - the amount of money available to invest, its percent of total financial assets, its contrast to demand in the last bull market, etc. - but I think the bottom line to answering the question is to compare the biggest silver investments to some popular equities. If they rival that of the stocks we always see on the news and analysts constantly talk about and every fund manager wants to own, then it might be reasonable to assume demand could be nearing its pinnacle.

So how do the world's largest silver ETF and one of the biggest silver producers compare to the more fashionable equities?

The largest silver ETF, iShares Silver Trust, has net assets of $9.6 billion (as of February 4). This pales in comparison to the more popular stocks trading in the U.S. In fact, SLV has roughly 3% the market cap of Apple. It would have to grow over 43 times to match Exxon Mobil.

Pan American Silver, the largest pure silver producer trading on a major U.S. exchange, has a market cap of $3.72 billion. This is 4.7% the size of McDonald's. The market cap would have to increase more than 53 times to match Walmart. It is over 62 times smaller than Microsoft.

This isn't to suggest SLV and PAAS will match the market cap of these other companies, but clearly the masses are still demanding much more of them than the biggest of silver's investment vehicles.

So how much more demand can silver handle? As much as it takes to make it the household name I'm convinced it will be before this is all over. When SLV is a favorite of fund managers. When Silver Wheaton is a market darling of the masses. When Pan American is Wall Street's top pick for the year.

Imagine what those bars on the right will look like when most everyone you know is talking about poor man's gold. The rise could be breathtaking.

Remember that silver rose over 3,646% from trough to peak in the last precious metals bull market; it's up about 630% in our current run. A return matching the 1970s advance would push the price to $152. This price level is further supported by the fact that this is about where it would be when inflation-adjusted for its 1980 peak.

When you look at the potential growth in market cap of the world's biggest silver investments, it becomes easy to view any downdraft in price as nothing but a buying opportunity. I know I do.

ACH Debit Now Available             

We now have the ability to do an ACH debit for auto-recurring or regular orders.

On checkout, simply select the 1) Offline Payment option, and 2) tell us your preference in the Comments box, 3) then complete authorization form and 4) fax to us at 480-275-3284 (or if you can scan it and eMail it that works to) . If you have set up an automatic monthly order, please just call/email us to change your payment option.

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"If workers struggle for higher wages, this is hailed as 'social gains,' if businessmen struggle for higher profits, this is damned as 'selfish greed.'"

-Ayn Rand