In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.
On Monday (January 26, 2026), spot silver touched $116.59 per Troy ounce in Comex trading. That brought the silver-to-gold price ratio down to 43.3-to-1. (It was 102-to-1 in late May of 2025.) I expect the ratio to drop perhaps to as low as 28-to-1, in 2026.
I was recently asked by a consulting client if he was too late to get into tangibles investing. I told him that it was indeed too late to jump into gold and nearly too late to buy silver, but he certainly wasn’t too late to buy guns and ammunition. I also mentioned that I’m surprised that we can still stack teller boxes of nickels at face value [1].
All in all, it is exciting to be holding tangibles at a time when the rest of the world has just awakened to their relative scarcity and their true value. We are now seeing so many individuals and organizations at all levels — everyone from Uber drivers to Central Banks — all now rushing in trying to acquire them, at a frantic pace. It is gratifying to see that our patient stacking of tangibles has now paid off. I’m often quoted as saying that we are living in The Age of Deception and Betrayal. But a corollary is that we also now live in The Age of The Truth of Tangibles. – JWR
Economics & Investing Links of Interest
- An interesting Andy Schectman interview: The Gold & Silver Market Just Broke [2].
- Video: What a Currency Reset Might Actually Look Like [3].
- Interview: ‘I think this is a once in a generation. We don’t often see monetary regime change’: McAlvany [4].
- One sad and unintended consequence of the spiking precious metals market is that many low-grade numismatic pre-1965 silver coins are now being melted by dealers. Reportedly, some common date dimes, quarters, and half dollars all the way up to AU50 grade are headed to the smelters. – JWR
- WSJ: Soaring Electricity Costs Are Now a Hot Political Issue [5].
- Pentagon, Korea Zinc Partner on Tennessee Mineral Smelter [6]. JWR’s Comments: Environmental regulations sidelined most of the nation’s smelters years ago. This left the United States vulnerable to dependence on overseas smelting — and much of that is in Mainland China.
Economics & Investing Media Tips:
Please send your economics and investing links to JWR [7]. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form [8].) Thanks!