The breadth and scope of a bull market depends on the number of people following the market and able to participate. The more people following the market and able to participate, the greater the potential of the market to reach unbelievable heights, as did the great gold-silver bull market of the 1970s, which climaxed January 20, 1980, with gold hitting $850 and silver $50.
Today, with gold already having traded above $1,000 this year, $850 gold may not appear high, but for the 1970s $850 was astronomical. In 1973, when CMIGS was formed specifically to retail silver bullion to Americans, gold was trading below $100. (Silver was the product in 1973 because then it was illegal for Americans to own gold bullion. Americans effectively regained the “right” to own gold bullion January 1, 1975.)
Before gold made its 1970s’ move, a common question was, “How high do you think gold will go?” The standard answer was $300. Frankly, no one had any idea that gold would hit $850. For some unknown reason, $300 became the standard answer. But, as it turned out, $300 was far short of the top.
(Not all prognosticators failed to predict extremely high numbers for gold in the 1970s. The Aden sisters predicted $3,000 gold, but considering how far that prediction was off the mark, let’s say that few forecasters foresaw how high gold would eventually go.)
As for silver, there were not a lot of rash predictions. At the time, an abundance of silver lay in precious metals warehouses around the world. The U.S. Strategic Stockpile, for example, still held 139,000,000 ounces. The fear of sales from the Strategic Stockpile hampered predictions of high silver prices. In May 1973, Merrill Lynch published a “Situation Report” that predicted $2.75 – $3.00 silver “within the next 12months.” In that report, ML hedged its prediction by warning of “pending sales from the U.S. Stockpile assuming that they take place.”
In the 1970s’ gold-silver bull market, the sources of information about gold and silver were limited. If you wanted information about gold or silver, you’d head for the local library where you could spend hours trying to find relevant data. Further, you usually had to depend on Establishment publications.
Rarely does the Establishment present accurate, reliable facts, especially when it comes to investments. During my life, I’ve seen Establishment reports on subjects about which I knew something that were so far off that mark they were laughable. Often, Establishment reports are suspected “plants.” In my April 30 blog post, I questioned a Reuters’ article about silver.
With the advent of the Internet, however, things changed – and in a big way.
Today, the first resource for information on just about anything is the Internet. Plug gold into Google, and you get 886,000,000 pages to view, which are too many and too general. Change the search to gold coins, and your choices are reduced to 3,700,000, and you get more specific information. Still too many? Search for gold investments and get 400,000 hits. But, say you’ve heard that the Krugerrand is the best-known gold coin in the world and also carries the lowest premium of the modern gold bullion coins, then google Krugerrand and get 298,000 choices of pages to review. (By the way, if you search the Internet, there’s a 69% change you’re using Google, 17% chance it’s Yahoo!, with MSN, Ask and AOL fighting over the scraps.
According to Internet World Stats, some 1.4 billion persons are connected to the Internet and, therefore, have instant information about investing in silver or gold. Further, because of the Internet, potential investors wanting gold investment information are not limited to the publications that libraries choose to house, which are almost exclusively Establishment publications.
For example, the World Gold Council’s website, www.gold.org, contains a plethora of data about gold, everything from its history, to production and usage, to who owns it. Want to know how much gold the world’s central banks claim to hold? That data is found there.
Like to know more about silver? Visit www.silverinstitute.org, the website of The Silver Institute, a nonprofit association that “serves as the industry’s voice in increasing public understanding of the many uses and values of silver.”
Want to learn what a 34-year veteran of the gold-silver bullion industry has to say about buying gold and silver? Visit www.cmi-gold-silver.com. Our website has been declared by some visitors to be best on the Internet for basic information about what form of gold or silver to buy.
Although I’ve chosen only three resource sites, there are literally thousands of sources of information on the Internet about gold and silver, which means that 1.4 billion potential investors have easy access to information about gold and silver. Because of the Internet, this gold-silver bull market has the potential to dwarf the bull market of the 1970s.
