Last week, I wrote about the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, still one of the most dramatic and instructive investment bubbles the world has ever seen. I pointed out a few similarities to the recent housing bubble, the most striking of which was the emergence of financial instruments that allowed unqualified buyers to enter the market. Coincidentally, just as I was writing about the inflation and popping of those bubbles, another bubble was imploding in dramatic fashion. As you know by now, that was silver. The immediate catalyst for silver’s plummet was CME Group’s announcement of several imminent...
