Gold is still struggling with the option expiration and a large overhang of potential orders that could stand for delivery at the Comex. Gold is a political metal, feared by the Central Banks of the developed nations, so the outcome is a little less predictable than might be otherwise.
Silver on the other hand is a dreadnought that takes no prisoners. Why is it able to shake off the kind of paper manipulation that seems to plague gold so often? It is because the central banks do not own any to lend on the cheap to their friends.
It seems only a matter of time until the exchange suspends trading and manages (forces) a cash settlement to bailout the big short interest held by the TBTF-who-must-not-be-maimed. That still will not resolve the artificial shortage that has been developing over the past twenty years or so. It requires time and effort to build mining capacity, and it appears that the preoccupation of the capital allocation has been slanted away from the production of real things, towards the development of better and faster systems of perception management, crowd control if you will, and wealth transference, from the many to the few.
This reminds of the famous anecdote that Boswell recorded, in which Samuel Johnson reacts to Bishop Berkeley's 'ingenious sophistry:'
"After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the nonexistence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it -- 'I refute it thus.'"Many will obtain a similar object lesson for themselves the hard way over the next few years, of the essential difference between the paper money that primarily has come to serve the bloated frauds and sordid schemes of a decaying financial elite that no longer represents accountability, equity, or sustainability, and the enduring value of real money that exists of its own accord, standing firm as the passing constructs and vain devices of men founder against it. There will doubtless be more ebb and flow, but in sum the resulting clash will be nothing short of epic, indeed.
