On the heels of gold's surge above $2,300 an ounce, silver has started moving up. Here's the chart:
I suppose this is people thinking they've missed the gold surge and are putting money into silver instead. Gold mining shares are also surging now, as they were a bit undervalued and buying them is an alternative way to buy gold.
This sudden flight to precious metals can't just be because investors are spooked at the thought of the US budget deficit and the interest payments topping $1 trillion.
It feels very much like there is a big devaluation coming.
During the Eurozone crisis of 2011-2013, the Swiss franc surged, London property surged as a tsunami of Greek and Italian money parked itself the safest asset outside the eurozone. Gold also surged - indeed in inflation-adjusted terms, the current gold price hasn't topped it's 2011 value. Oh, and bitcoin had it's first bull run hitting the heady heights of $1,000!
Basically, people got their money out any way they could, with rich people who could afford lawyers buying London property, and poorer people trying to buy gold coins.
Perhaps it's the Renminbi that is about to devalue and insiders are moving to precious metals? It's harder for people to buy property abroad now as places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand have placed controls on foreigners buying property in the last five years, to protect locals from being priced out. And money-laundering rules make it difficult to open dollar accounts, or accounts in sterling or Swiss francs.
So that leaves gold and silver, which are easily accessible.
It also implies that tech savvy people will try to buy bitcoin and other crypto. We might be in for a wild ride.