Any time you are considering the buying latest gold silver prices, there are many essential parts of information you should know in advance of investing. Silver has noticed a phenomenal rise recently, utilising the expense just $7.50 per ounce in 2008, rising to nearly $50 earlier this year, just before settling to $30 for the end in the year.

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On Tuesday, gold prices reached $1,600 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a ten week high. Silver also moved upward to a five month high as a continuing decline of the dollar inspired a commodity rally.

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Silver prices could move up significantly anytime due to shortages or just because it becomes a more recognized “asset class” and an alternative to stocks, bonds, cash and real estate. We probably will not see prices hitting new all time highs right away. In fact, prices are in a downward trend right now, allowing us more time to steadily build enough silver reserves for possible currency defaults in the future.

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I’ve been hearing several different reasons for the decline in gold and silver prices. I suppose there probably is not a single reason but instead a mixture of all the below.

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“Gold is down more than $300 or roughly 16% in the past few weeks. Silver has lost nearly 40% in the same time period and the mining companies have also been hit hard. This decline in precious metals has been driven by funds scrambling for liquidity, the CME hiking margin rates and a stronger U.S. dollar. Many also suspect that the banks helped to manipulate the price lower in order to cover as many of their underwater short positions as possible. JPMorgan and their cohorts control the paper markets and can use their leverage to manipulate the spot price to whatever level they want in the short term.

This is done via “stuffing” trades and using a variety of other methods to make the markets believe that there is considerably more selling pressure than actually exists. This is particularly profitable as options expiration is this week and the current smack down will leave most options expiring worthless, in addition to providing an opportunity to exit short positions.

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and the second most powerful currency on the planet (the euro) is also collapsing. As the major paper currencies of the globe crumble, the hunger that investors around the world have for gold continues to grow. Today, the price of gold hit an all-time record of $1607.90 an ounce. But that record surely will not live for long. The truth is that gold has been steadily climbing for quite some time now. A year ago, the price of gold was hovering around $1200 an ounce and and many “mainstream economists” scoffed at the idea that the price of gold could go significantly higher. Well, nobody is laughing now. As colossal debt loads continue to crush both Europe and the United States, the euro and the dollar are going to continue to collapse. There are going to be more bailouts and central banks are going to be doing more money printing. So how high is all of this going to push the price of gold?

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David Morgan is a precious metals aficionado armed with degrees in finance and economics as well as engineering.

He created the Silver-Investor.com website and originated The Morgan Report, a monthly that covers economic news, overall financial health of the global economy, currency problems ahead and reasons for investing in precious metals. He is one expert I follow to keep abreast of the silver and gold markets. I have posted on a special video page a number of videos that feature David Morgan.

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This past week’s dip in the price of silver from nearly $50 per ounce down to below $37 per ounce is exactly what we predicted would happen a week ago on NIAnswers.

A week ago on NIAnswers we said, “The gold/silver ratio has declined during the past year from 70 down to 32. We projected it to decline to 38 this year, so there is a chance silver has run too far too fast. It wouldn’t surprise us to see a large dip in silver prices with the gold/silver ratio bouncing back up to 40. However, we are 100% sure that the gold/silver ratio will decline to at least 16 this decade. Therefore, we think silver is a buy here for the long-term, but it is probably best to be buying gold here even more heavily than silver so that if silver dips in the short-term, you can sell some gold to buy more silver.”

With gold now at $1,503 and silver at $36.81, the gold/silver ratio is now back up to 40, which is exactly what we predicted would happen a week ago when the ratio was 32.

With a gold/silver ratio of 40, silver is starting to once again become very attractive. Silver will likely remain very volatile in the short-term, but it is best for us to ignore this short-term noise and focus on the long-term. There is simply no better asset to own during hyperinflation than silver. We are 100% sure that the gold/silver ratio will return to its historical average of 16 within the few years, which means that those who buy silver today will see a 2 1/2 increase in their purchasing power.

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FED Chairman Bernanke gave a speech in front of the National Press Club essentially repeated what many of us have realized for like an eternity now in spite of all the Quantitative Easing and massive liquidity created by those programs, job growth remains anemic:

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