That the Japanese bond market is cracking is actually a big story.
The bigger story behind the Japanese bond market is the unwinding of the Yen carry trade. This used to go on for decades: Foreign investors borrowed money in the Japanese market (at near zero rates) and then converted that money to other currencies, with which they bought other financial vehicles which promised a higher return. So they pocketed the difference in that loan and the potential benefit. Of course, most of the financial vehicles used were highly leveraged, so when the interest rates started to shoot up, these positions were suddenly very costly. Apparently lots of investment firms participated in that scheme for decades and now are facing big losses.
As to buying silver or not - as others said, do your due diligence. There is no blanket rule about when and in what to invest. Before investing any meaningful amounts in anything, I would make sure that any outstanding debt is covered first. Because if your trade(s) go south, you loose doubly (investment plus still unpaid debt). You cannot avoid risk (in anything), all you can do, is manage it (risk management is the core of any trading activity, and also the hardest to implement).
The case for precious metals is not so much speculation, as it is wealth preservation. They are the only investment without any counterparty risk, as long as you hold the physical metal in your possession (be it at home (risky), or in a vaulting facility outside of the banking system (not free); no safe boxes). In a serious market downturn, PM are going to be hit, too (because leveraged short sellers will need to sell anything liquid to cover their positions, even PMs), but generally they will recover fast (or faster than anything else). PM rise mostly when confidence in the markets are low (not with inflation as is generally said). Notice I said “in your possession”, so any paper gold or silver is a risk. You can use that as a speculative trade with any “play money” you may have, but getting out of the trade at the right time will be difficult. There are people who mortgage the house to put the money into leveraged investments, I would strongly discourage anyone to do that - it’s a way to get rich quick (for a few), or permanently broke (for most).
The case for silver at this point is stronger than for gold, because there is a) a structural deficit between annual mine production and annual demand that will likely persist for years; b) silver is not just a monetary metal, it has a vast industrial use, too; and c) the gold to silver ratio is still higher than on average. All gold (or most of it) that has ever been mined, is still around (total gold holdings increase by around 2% per annum), while a lot of silver “disappears” into weapons, electronics, medical stuff etc, and only a tiny fraction of this is ever recovered.
In my personal opinion, the silver bull market has only started, it is likely to go on for quite a while, and likely to higher levels than anyone can see right now. That poses another problem: the government may at some time, when prices are getting too high (which means that there is virtually no silver around for sale), place restrictions on the possession of silver, gold, or both (It’s now a “strategic mineral” in the US). Which means you might be winning, and then you loose anyway.
Platinum is another idea, but it is more tied to industrial demand. At the moment platinum is trying to play catchup with silver/ gold (it is currently around half the price of gold per ounce, but used to be double the price of gold some years back). The big advantage of platinum is, that in history it has never been restricted/made illegal to hold for the general public, which has happened both with gold and silver in the past).
This too is only for informational purpose and is not intended as investment advice.
www.dcreport.org
silverseek.com
