Mr. Ehrlich’s view of looming scarcity was hardly radical in the years
after the 1970s oil shocks. Many investors in the late 1970s shared his
faith that rising metal prices reflected finite supply and impending
shortages. The Hunt brothers,
for example, famously gambled billions of their oil fortune on the
rising price of silver, and then lost their shirts in 1980 when prices
faltered and they failed to corner the market.
During the 1980s, macroeconomic factors, including falling oil prices
and economic slowdowns, far outweighed new pressures from population
growth and drove down the prices of many metals. Everyday market forces —
technological change, price-driven competition and new sources of
supply — also helped reduce prices. The international tin cartel
collapsed under pressure from new Brazilian mines. Aluminum, plastic,
fiber-optic cables and satellites began to replace copper, even as
copper production soared in response to 1970s highs; by 1985, the copper
industry struggled to create demand.
This dynamic relationship between scarcity and abundance matters for
public policy. Exaggerated fears of resource scarcity can lead to
stifling price controls, panicked efforts to limit production or
consumption, and public investment strategies predicated on high prices
that turn out to be ephemeral.
The same thing is true in business. Solyndra, the now-bankrupt
solar-panel company, failed in part because its model depended on the price of polysilicon,
used by its competitors, remaining high. When prices instead collapsed,
so did its competitive strategy and the company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/opinion/sunday/betting-on-the-apocalypse.html?_r=0
MAKE SURE YOU GET PHYSICAL SILVER IN YOUR OWN POSSESSION. Don't Buy SLV, or Futures or Pooled Accounts or any other BS paper silver product .Remember anything on paper is worth the paper it is written on. Go Long Stay long the bull market have even started yet
