The silver illusion

If you’ve been anywhere near social media lately, you’d think we’ve entered the age of silver supremacy. Memes are circulating about how athletes at the next Olympics are aiming for silver medals instead of gold. Someone’s joked that Gold Flake cigarettes will soon be rebranded Silver Flake. And financial influencers are busy posting charts that supposedly prove silver is about to “outshine” gold once and for all. It’s funny until you realise that this is how every commodity mania begins – when conviction curdles into comedy. A self-reinforcing cycle takes hold: prices rise because people say they’re rising, and people say they’re rising because prices have risen. Industrial demand, supply shortages, and solar-panel stories are just the rational-sounding garnish on what is essentially a fear-of-missing-out movement. Suggested read: Value, boom and bust The sanest recent comment came from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who observed, “It is a mistake to think th