[Carry_Okie]

Most of the money in the stock market in a crash isn't taken out, it evaporates.

Duh. Still, when investors sell stocks, they end up with cash. It has to go somewhere.

One might submit that a lot of cash and valuables are going into mattresses or somewhere similar.

In what form? Silver is cheap. Where is it going? You clearly don't know.

[grania]

When investors sell stock, only those who get out first will get what the stock is worth at its height. Wnen the value collapses, those who weren't ahead of the game get a lot less, or nothing.

Think of the Enron collapse. When it collapsed, nothing was left for the little guy or the one with a pension invested in that stock.

I'm hypothesizing. It's clear that people are putting less money in banks. So either they don't have it or it's somewhere we can't see.

FWIW, the US mint had to stop selling silver eagles a month or so ago. I don't know if they started up again. Why? They couldn't keep up with demand.