NPR.
The prices of gold and silver are on roller coaster rides.
Gold has been rising over the last few years.
Silver shot up like a skyrocket in January.
But then, both plunged in price and sputtered around the end of the month.
Is somebody hoarding gold bars?
Is there a rampage demand for cantalabras?
What is going on?
This is the indicator from Planet Money.
I'm Darian Woods.
And I'm Adrian Ma.
Today on the show, the long and short history of precious metals.
We talk with some traders about what this volatility in gold and silver is saying about the state of the world.
To explain what's happened with gold and silver over the last month,
we spoke with David Kotak, David co-founded Cumberland Advisors, a money management firm.
And David starts the story in 600 BC in Lydia, a kingdom that was where modern-day Turkey is now.
Lydia was the first trading country That actually put together a coin that contained gold.
So gold has a history of almost 3,000 years in monetary and finance and trading and payments.
David says gold is both malleable and strong.
It could be spread extremely thinly, even down to the width of a single atom.