December 22, 2024 | How does Silver Act During War?
COMMENT: You are wrong. Silver did not decline during World War II.
TH
ANSWER: I think you misunderstood what I said. It is not that silver declined in price because it was fixed, as you can see from this chart. However, silver declined relative to nickel, which was more critical during the war, so they replaced the 5-cent nickel with nearly pure silver. After the war, the 5 cent returned to being struck in nickel. What I said is to pay attention to the spread between silver and nickel as an indication of war.
During World War II, they imposed fixed prices to prevent inflation. As you can see, as soon as the war ended and the price fixing ended, there was a major rally in 1945. By 1966, silver was testing the high of World War I. The major low was with the stock market in 1932 BECAUSE the dollar was at a record high.
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Martin Armstrong December 22nd, 2024
Posted In: Armstrong Economics