Once upon a market cycle, Washington bought silver. Not to stabilize the world. Not to rescue China. But to win votes in Nevada.
It was 1934. The world was cracked. The Great Depression rolled like thunder across continents. But in the United States, Franklin Roosevelt needed miners. He needed the Mountain West. So he passed the Silver Purchase Act.
The U.S. Treasury, the most sovereign and overwhelming bidder on Earth, started buying. A lot. Not quietly. Not marginally. They hoovered up a third of the world’s silver supply in just a few years.
They called it policy. But in China, it felt like plunder. In that distant economy, a fuse began to burn.
