Gold, or Silver?

You hear a lot these days about gold. It's no wonder. Even Bernanke says that people hold gold as "a protection against... really, really bad outcomes."

Yet few people talk about silver. Even though the potential for silver to appreciate could be many times that of gold right now.

Amazingly, silver prices remain well below the all-time high of $50.35...

And that was reached in 1980, more than 30 years ago.

In addition, the supply of silver is on a downtrend of historic proportions.

Did you know that unlike gold, silver is 98% consumable? Most silver, such as the metal used in electronics, is not recoverable. There's no viable way to recycle it.

In 1970 it is said there were 140 months of available above-ground silver. By 1990 that shrank to 50 months. By 2010 it shriveled to perhaps as little as 11 months.

Even more telling...

1. The amount of silver coming out of the ground is going down every year...
2. Few, if any new discoveries have been announced in the past 10 years...
3. Most silver comes out of the last stages of existing mines...
4. The quality of silver mined is the lowest it's ever been... And
5. Like most metals, silver isn't mined in veins any more. It takes many tons of earth and rock to process even an ounce...

So what has been keeping the price of silver so low? And why is it on the verge of a breakout that could be the biggest in several generations?