Silver has hit a record high in Google search interest. The Kobeissi Letter mentioned 1980 in its predictions, so let's discuss that. At that time, silver experienced a surge followed by a crash.
The Hunt brothers were among the wealthiest people in the world. They didn't believe in paper money, thinking the dollar was becoming worthless. So they not only bought physical silver but also leveraged their investments to buy massive amounts of silver futures. At one point, they controlled one-third to one-half of the total non-governmental holdings of silver globally. Then, the price of silver skyrocketed from $6 to $49.45 within a year.
Ultimately, due to a sudden change in exchange rules—allowing only selling and prohibiting buying—and an increase in margin requirements, the Hunt brothers' cash flow dried up. On March 27, 1980, the price of silver crashed in a single day, and the brothers went bankrupt.
The driving force behind this was the hyperinflation of the 1970s. Nixon had only abolished the gold standard less than ten years prior, and people were uneasy about the dollar losing its gold backing.
The difference now is that there is a collective awakening rather than individual manipulation; the similarity is that people now trust physical assets but not currency.
