A recent GFMS/Thomson Reuters Silver Institute World Silver Survey shows that while the price of silver dropped 23.6% in the last year, there was actually an increase in demand, particularly from China and India.

As much as we'd all like significantly higher silver and gold prices, Chris Thompson of Raymond James doesn't expect them. The good news, he argues, is that the relative stability now characterizing the market permits investors to make informed decisions about which companies can build value.

Downward manipulation of gold and silver is real, declares Jason Hamlin, but the longer it continues, the higher prices will go when the free market reasserts itself.