Loading ...I used to work with sheet metals and buy metals and sell or recycle the drop offs or scrap. I always considered the prices too cheap. For example a 4×8 sheet of thin galvanized steel was cheaper than a sheet of plywood and plywood grows on trees. .20cents a pound delivered. Around year 2000. So cheap the scrap was worthless at that time. Or maybe $6 for a ton.
Steel, plain, is the cheapest or minimum wage of metals. After that, all the others like aluminum brass copper silver gold etc are higher. I always suspected that because there is a pecking order of metals values, holding down the more expensive gold would automatically hold down prices of all the others for the greater good of lower manufacturing costs.
Naturally we all know they do it thru the futures market. Even though they hold them back, reality or cost of production goes up and the prices go up anyway in an annoying zig zag manor. If there was no “governor” on commodity prices who knows how crazy high they would get. Then crash? So the futures market is kind of like “price controls” on metals producers being treated like public utilities that are somewhat controlled, no monopoly allowed.
So holding gold down probably keeps the material cost down of an Aircraft Carrier, Tank, Fighter Jet, 747, and a Toyota or Washing machine down. When it comes to production of things that have weight and mass, the “system” seems to like to hold down the costs of materials and labor. Production Labor value also has a pecking order, unskilled versus skilled so a lower than normal value of unskilled minimum wage, holds down the wages of the skilled workers wages.
Factories always had problems getting skilled labor “at that price” in a hot smelly noisy factory, when a person can get a cheap job in an air conditioned store or car dealership selling foreign made imports to friends and relatives.
Holding gold and silver down is good for jewelry producers and jewelry retailers, again lower than normal material and labor costs are needed for more profit.