By Patrick A. Heller
Commentary on Precious Metals Prepared for CoinWeek.com
Some who read my columns object to my statements that a growing number of analysts, investment and hedge fund managers, precious metals commentators, and others in related financial markets have come to the conclusion that the gold and silver market prices are being suppressed by the US government, its trading partners, and allies.
There is no single “expert” whose pronouncement is taken as the last word on the subject. Instead, there is a constant trickle of such financial observers and writers who reach this conclusion. In my own research, I am not coming across anyone who says that they formerly thought that gold and silver prices were manipulated but now no longer think so.
That’s right, the trend is for people who used to assert that there was no proof of manipulation to now agree that price suppression is taking place.
The
best place to go to review a “scorecard” of experts who have come to
the conclusion that gold and silver prices are rigged is to review the
“Daily Dispatches” section of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
(available at www.gata.org). To give you a sample of some of the information you will find there, let me review some of the information posted within the past few days.
Perhaps the most interesting is a 6-page report prepared by South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis M. Loftis, Jr. following a request from the state legislature about the advisability of investing in gold and silver. You can access this report at http://www.treasurer.sc.gov/Documents/Proviso%2089%20145.pdf. In the discussion of gold and silver as an investment, the second paragraph states: “Similar to other commodities, the value of gold and silver is determined by supply and demand, as well as speculation. The Federal Reserve, The London Bullion Market Association, JP Morgan Chase, and HSBC Holdings have practiced fractional-reserve banking and engaged in naked short selling causing artificial price suppression.”
Further down, the report reads: “Along with chronic delivery delays, some investors have received delivery of bars not matching their contract in serial number and weight. Because of these problems, there are concerns that COMEX may not have the gold inventory to back its existing warehouse receipts.”
At http://futuremoneytrends.com/index.php/category-table/157-charles-biderman-interview- you can read Charles Biderman’s (from Trim Tabs Investment Research) conclusion that investors and pension funds have been exiting US equities and hedge funds since 2007 and that the US government has been forced to actively manipulate the US stock markets to keep them from crashing.
Or you can go to http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/charles-biderman-problem-rigged-markets/73098 where analyst Chris Martinson states: “The issues before us as investors are as daunting today as they can possibly be, and my position has been that today we are all speculators, not investors, because we have been placed in the uncomfortable position of trying to guess what the central banks are going to do next. Also weighing on investors today is the fact that our official data is what I call fuzzy. That is, it is often statistically massaged to make things look a little bit rosier than they otherwise might.”
Even Stanford Economics Professor John Taylor wrote about financial repression at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577307403971824094.html.
Then Jim Grant, writer of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and former columnist for Forbes, gave a scathing interview of Federal Reserve market manipulation at http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000080414.
Perhaps most impressive is that these are not even all the reports from just the last week that are all posted at www.gata.org!
You don’t have to take my word that more people are acknowledging the US government’s actions at suppressing gold and silver prices along with manipulations in other financial markets. Read the source documents or watch the recorded interviews for yourself. Then just try to find any expert who formerly stated that gold and silver and other markets were manipulated but now no longer thinks that way.
Patrick A. Heller owns Liberty Coin Service and Premier Coins & Collectibles in Lansing, Michigan and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com. Other commentaries are available at Numismaster (http://www.numismaster.com under “News & Articles). His award-winning radio show “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 AM Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio and text archives posted at http://www.1320wils.com.
