Are gold and silver warning us of a new stage in the financial crisis?

The earth's crust contains something like 0.08ppm (parts per million) silver. There is, on the other hand, just 0.004ppm gold. In other words silver is about 20 times more abundant in the earth's crust than gold. The historical monetary ratios between the two metals pretty much reflected this. It varies according to time and place, but on average it seems roughly 16-18 silver coins were exchangeable for a gold coin of the same weight wherever – or whenever – you were. In 2009, about 80 million ounces of gold were produced and, according to the Silver Institute, 709 million ounces of silver – about nine times more. But gold is not nine times more expensive than silver. Nor is it 16, 18 or 20 times more expensive than silver. It is 40 times more expensive. That seems rather a lot, especially when you consider that most of the gold that has ever been mined remains in the world, yet much of the silver has been consumed by industry. Is that ratio normal? Or is it some kind of anomaly? Let's have a look…