Just thinking out loud here. I know that silver has alot of uses in the electronics industry because its a good conductor, as well as having a vareity of uses in other industries. For example the iphone uses a silver zinc battery. Annual consumption of silver is greater than production.

I also know that silver is in big demand like all commodities because central banks all over the world continue to print money, and people people are looking for a store of value.

There is a campaign to buy silver to crash J.P.Morgan as they are short something like a possible 3.3billion ounces of silver in the futures market.

Taking all this into account it seems the only way for silver is up, way up. So what will it mean for the electronics industry? Will it affect consoles or just the iphone/handhelds?

I'm no expert in this area and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me.

Raw PMs such as silver typically don't make up a huge chunk of the overall components costs, so the effects shouldn't be that great. You have to remember that part of the valuation of such commodities come from the demand from these industries, the demand goes, the valuation will fall.

As an aside, the PM boom is mainly down to Bernanke's latest printing of $600bn and the Eurozone crisis. I think it's clear from here that all policies that Gov'ts make will be towards monetary tightening, thus leading to a fall in demand for non-currency value holders. PMs fell on Chinese plans of fiscal tightening to curb inflation, and I think they may have peaked.

These are just my views on what's going to happen in the markets... I think investors will switch back from PMs to currencies in the mid-term, but I don't think they're right to do so. Investors, in my mind, seem to be far too bullish in recent times. The success of GM's IPO at $35 a share shows this (I actually predicted this level... and I still say it was over-evaluated).

Interest rates will begin to creep up around the globe over the next year, that alone will reverse the demand for PMs

Thats the thing I don't see silver falling at all. I think we're at the beginning of a major breakout. Governments haven't been tight with money and I don't see how thats going to change (not why, cause they should tighten). Thats why i started the thread. PM's seem to be here for the forseeable future as people are right not to trust currencies. Silver was at $16/17 an ounce in january. Its at $29 today, and its still undervalued. That's why its got to start taking some sort of toll, even if it isn't the bulk of components, thats basically double the price.

Also silver has been supressed in price for years, thats why J.P.M have such a ridiculous short position.

As for GM http://www.zerohedge.com/article/channel-stuffing-gm

I could be wrong about PMs, I just see interest rates going up massively over the next 18 months, and I think we've seen the last of QE - in the US, at least, and we've had some strong rhetoric from China recently about action to quell inflation. I think the Eurozone could be the fly in the ointment, though, we'll have to look closely at that.

As for the effects of the rise on the cost of silver in electronics... it really does depend on how much silver goes into the product. I have no idea. But, if you take coffee, for example, the price of coffee on the commodity markets doubling would have very little effect on the profitability of Starbucks, for example, because the cost of the bean comes to less than a couple of cents a cup. The same can be true of silver, as long as the quantities used are small.

And, GM, I know... I'm not very confident in the long term prospects of GM. Ford is the new flag runner of Detroit, imo.

Fair enough about the coffee bean thing, but i think silver will keep rising for reasons stated before.

You're right about china, and its more than rhetoric. China want out of the dollar period, cause they've guessed that they won't get paid back. They've started bilateral trade between Russia and China in their own currencies.

I don't see what western governments can do. They can't pay back their debts cause they're so large, so they'll just keep printing or default. The US is trying what japan did and it didn't work for them.

Wow, you could be right... for a while, at least:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cbs-bernanke-doesnt-rule-out-more-bond-buys-2010-12-03?dist=afterbell

Some major shake-ups need to go down at the Fed.

The banks are enjoying that 0% money, cause its transferring wealth from everybody else to them. The fed is by the bankers, for the bankers.

My country was already sold (well, its in the process. the ****s) :(

To quote Voltaire: ''All paper money will eventually return to its instrinsic value: zero.''

Yup. Which appears to be happening worldwide. I laugh at every cash for gold outlet i see. How can people be so stupid? (well the ones that can afford to be stupid. Tough times out there)

Buy silver to get out of the "casino gulag" as max keiser so eloquently describes the monetary system.

it means our electronics will start costing alot more if they keep using silver