I'm not a Silver Expert but Silver is a precious metal and an industrial metal that means the economic slowdown may help and hurt Silver. Silver has industrial usage too which means the economic slowdown may decrease demand of Silver but Silver is also store of value meaning people may stash their cash into the Precious Metal like people do with Gold. Thus, experts say that Silver can track the price of Gold and look at the Gold to Silver Ratio. Quite frankly if you wanna speculate on silver prices, buying silver coins and bullion is probably not the best way to go. Silver ETF (Exchange traded funds) are today the best way to buy on silver and cut down on transcations costs and will give you the best prices closest to actual spot prices. ETF can be traded easily with a Stock Broker!