BEST OF JIM COOK

May 8, 2007

STILL CHEAP

The amazing thing about silver is how few people know about it. If they knew the facts, I believe they would buy as much silver as they could. In silver you have an ageless precious metal with an intrinsic value still selling at close to historic lows, when adjusted for inflation. This tangible asset stands outside the paper monetary system. It has universal demand by people around the world who value it because it’s scarce and precious.

Silver became money on its merits before there was such a thing as industrial development. Then, fifty years ago industrial uses for silver literally exploded and the above ground supply, that was once used for money, began to disappear and rapidly became depleted. Silver is an asset that’s absolutely indispensable for modern civilization. You have large industries where silver is so necessary they will fail without it. You have all the substitutes for silver being too expensive to replace it.

You have new investment buying to go along with the aggressive industrial demand from Asia. You have a world supply that’s been dramatically drawn down and depleted. You have a gap every year between what’s produced and what’s used. You have a crucial metal with less of it left to be mined from the earth than any other major metal. You have the price of silver trading close to the cost of mining it, a bullish factor for a commodity.