Jeff Christian – “A Brief Response RE: “Silver Price Suppression” and “Reset” Comments”
In the 51 years that we have been involved in the silver market, since 1975, we have continually heard people speak about grand conspiracies to suppress the price of silver, and how such conspiracies were about to break down. Those comments have been inaccurate, based on false information, demonstrating a lack of understanding of broader financial markets as well as silver and commodities markets, and wrong for all that time.
With silver prices spiking from $50 on 25 November to $116 today, 28 January, these falsehoods have become louder once more. They are just as wrong today as they have been for the past half century.
CPM received this email from an investor client last Saturday. Below is an edited version of our response. We felt it was worth circulating more broadly.
Hello Mr. Christian,
I have been hearing a lot of precious metals “experts” describe the recent sharp increase in the price of silver is due to price “discovery” leading to price “revaluation” after many years of price suppression. The military industrial complex is primarily responsible for the artificially low silver price, these experts say.
Will you please explain the CPM Group’s position on this topic? I apologize if I have missed any previous comments you have made.
David
David,
Briefly, because this is all pure nonsense.
- ‘Experts’ have been sharing the same theories for 30 or 40 years. Some of them know what they say is inaccurate. Some do not seem to know. Some are so caught up in various conspiracy belief systems that trying to teach them anything is hopeless.
- The price has never been suppressed.
- The price is ‘discovered’ every minute in a worldwide silver market that has millions of buyers and sellers. That is how markets work. There is no ‘new discovery,’ no one-time ‘reset’ underway. That is not how markets work nowadays, except perhaps raisins in California.
- The sharp rise in silver prices in the past eight weeks, as well as the longer term increase since the middle of 2019, have reflected fundamentals, primarily higher volumes of physical silver purchases by investors. That this is not unique to silver is evidenced by the sharp increases in gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, aluminum, copper, nickel, tin, zinc, and a host of other metals. Something beyond silver is at work, as CPM reports have explained in detail.
- If you want to suggest that this ‘discovery’ is ‘occurring’ now because the ‘suppression’ is breaking down, you should explain why gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, aluminum, copper, nickel, and a wide range of other metals and commodities are rising sharply. This is not a silver-specific spike in prices. It is commodities and other goods wide. Why have egg prices risen 533% since 2019 and new car prices more than 30%? Are the price-suppressing conspiracies in eggs and cars breaking down? The reality reveals the nonsensical nature of the claim.
- The claim that the military uses massive amounts of silver is a hoax. Military use of silver and other metals is classified. Silver use in military applications is covered by confidentiality clauses for suppliers, refiners, fabricators, and contractors using the metal for militaries. There is some public information, mostly buried in government documents. This absence of official information opens a vacuum in which uninformed promoters can claim anything without fear of someone publicly providing classified information. CPM has posted free videos on silver use in military ordinance, as well as having written reports on the subject.
Please note that the U.S. military has not deemed silver to be a strategic metal since at least the 1960s. The Treasury transferred 137 million ounces to the National Defense Stockpile in the late 1960s or early 1970s when it had removed silver from newly manufactured circulating coinage. The military did not want the metal, but the Administration required it to take on that metal.
In the 1970s it was common for precious metals marketeers to say ‘It’s Middle Eastern buying.’ Then after the oil price drop in 1983 it was ‘Soviet buying’ or ‘Chinese buying.’ Then it was ‘central bank buying.’ Who are you going to call to ask if this is true? ‘Hello, China. Can you tell me how much of this or that, silver or gold or platinum, or cayenne pepper, you are using and buying?’
CPM has written extensively about all of this in both freely distributed and paid-for research reports. There is a portion of our website that discusses the lack of evidence of price suppression activities https://cpmgroup.com/counterargumentstosilverconspiracytheories/) that includes two major government investigations into these allegations.
