Silver is not a precious metal. A precious metal, you know, like gold, which just sits around in vaults doing nothing. Its only real world use is plating connectors and jewellery, because of its non-corroding property.
Silver is one of the most important industrial metals. All the world's electronics rely on silver. Your monitor has thousands of tiny wires going to each square, all silver. Solder for copper pipes, silver solder. Solder for circuit boards, silver solder. All of those solar panels, lots of silver. Cruise missiles, one pound of silver in each. And each of these uses can't be done by any other metals.
There is tons and tons of gold available if the price is right. It has been sitting around in the dark for centuries, accumulating.
There is almost no, above ground, refined silver. It was all sold at prices cheaper than dirt to keep the financial ponzi scheme going. For so long the big banks used silver price manipulation to pad their income.
And now, manufacturers are going to pay high prices for silver, because they NEED it. This will lead to many dominoes falling.
The COMEX puts itself out of business.
The COMEX was sold to the public as a place to allow price discovery. For people who thought the price of commodities might go up, they could by a future contract to supply them what they would need. Or for suppliers to sell future production for needed cash now.
This all sounded good. And would help stabilize prices and commodity flows. However, then they allowed people to make paper backed bets on the price movement. And so, people with only paper (not any silver, or copper, or grain…) to manipulate the prices.
Do you remember that time when oil went under $0 a barrel? This is the difference between real and paper. Paper doesn't need any space, oil does. At $0 a barrel, the suppliers were saying, we will pay you if you have someplace to put this crude.
What happened with silver is that China declared they wouldn't be exporting raw silver anymore. (not without CCP authorizing each shipment) And people who NEED silver to continue running their manufacturing plants started doing whatever they could to get physical silver. One company agreed to finance costs and pay for upgrades to be able to purchase ALL production from one of the largest silver mines.
What will happens is that people who NEED the metal will now go around the COMEX to get it. The COMEX doesn't have near enough to cover what they already sold, and so when that becomes blatantly obvious, no physical needing person will deal with the COMEX. Essentially, the COMEX becomes off track betting on the silver price, which will become meaningless in the real world, and maybe meaningless in the paper world.
The dollar, and all other fiat currencies are based on trust
When people lose faith in the currency, they try to trade it for something physical. That paper is supposed to be a claim check on physical goods. But, when too much paper is printed, there isn't enough physical to go around. (Nixon's closure of the gold window, 1965 removal of silver from coins…) And so, the ones who ran to physical first, get some, and everyone else gets none. And just like Tulip Mania, people will trade more and more for any physical.
People sell off their bonds, to get paper, to buy physical. And the bond market craters. The currency is seen as worthless, future currency is seen as REALLY worthless. The bond collapse will start in Europe and sweep across the Atlantic.
From that point you will only have a few days to get your money out of the banks before they shut down, hopefully take a bankers holiday, but many will never open again.
The dollar collapse is upon us (and the Euro collapse). Not long now, but will still probably take months. Watch for the wave of bond market collapse.
Cities, the worst place to be during a financial collapse
During the great depression, many small farms never knew anything happened. They were poor, but they were always poor. But, they grew their own food.
The cities on the other hand are fragile systems just waiting to fall apart. Three days without food deliveries and city folk will turn into hangry monsters looking for anything to eat.
Again, this isn't an if, but a when. (too many forces are pushing this scenario, control food, control people) So, get at least one month of stored food. A year is better.
When the banks close, most people won't be able to pay for food. They only use their credit card. Most people have no cash saved. So, be sure to have some emergency cash saved up.
The fuel stops flowing when the CCs stop working. The gasoline supply chain works by a long string of open credit. Almost everyone purchases their gas with a CC. So, very quickly, a city can find itself out of gas. Even more quickly if lots of people are trying to buy fuel to try to get out of there. Unless you have a planned place you are going to, and you are ahead of the crowd, getting out there on the only freeway out of town is a really bad idea. It will soon become a parking lot. And as people run out of gas, it will become a permanent parking lot.
So, first thing, keep your car's fuel tank topped off. If you can, store a 12 month rotating inventory of fuel cans (with gasoline stabilizers). Get out at the first sign of trouble, or stay a few weeks until things clear, and then carefully try to make your way out of town.
Of course, i recommend finding a homestead as soon as possible, and moving their permanently to watch the collapse and rebuild from the sidelines.
Everything does get better. MUCH BETTER!
However, the in between time will be very tumultuous. Have some cash (actual paper), have some silver and have some cryptos. These will be important at different points.
In between now, and what comes next, we will probably see a new dollar, issued through The US treasury. Backed by a basket of commodities, because no one wants to accept a fiat just based on faith. The Fed will try to introduce a CBDC, probably tied to social security and other welfare programs, which won't catch on with the non-welfare people. (What's happening in Minnesota will make people believe every welfare plan had huge amounts of corruption) And many banks will be trying to issue stable coins. The thing the banks are forgetting is that these need to exist besides in that specific bank, so they may all die before the banksters work out that they need to be interoperable.
Things are changing, do not try to hold onto the past.