One Of The World’s Largest Silver Miners Slams The CFTC About Silver Market Manipulation

“It occurs to me that such massive speculation in COMEX silver futures may not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of commodity law and may suggest something is wrong with the price discovery process, since real producers and consumers of silver don’t appear to be represented…. As one of the largest primary silver producers in the world, we feel that an effective and fair pricing mechanism is critical for the healthiness of our industry and for the millions of people impacted by what appears from the outside, to be manipulative practices by a concentration of players.”

–  One Of The World’s Largest Silver Miners Slams The CFTC About Silver Market Manipulation (ZeroHedge, June 3, 2015):

It has long been known to silver market watchers that when it comes to the price of paper silver, there has long been a chronic and extremely concentrated shorting presence at the Comex, one which the CFTC has persistently refused to address even though it consistently surpasses the proposed limits on derivative positions. Now, at long last, a Canadian silver miner, First Majestic Silver Corp., has decided to take the CFTC to task.

In a letter penned by Ted Butler to CFTC Chairman Tim Massad (who recently replaced former Goldmanite and future US Treasury Secretary, Gary Gensler), Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic, became the first primary silver producer to vocally highlight some of the questionable activity reported weekly in the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders report, specifically the “record position change of more than 28,200 net contracts of COMEX silver futures” the equivalent of 141 million ounces of silver and 61 days of world mine production. Incidentally, this was first observed here one week ago.

Read moreOne Of The World’s Largest Silver Miners Slams The CFTC About Silver Market Manipulation

7 Person CFTC Team Charges Gold Manipulators Identified First On Zero Hedge With Gold And Silver Spoofing

7 Person CFTC Team Charges Gold Manipulators Identified First On Zero Hedge With Gold And Silver Spoofing (ZeroHedge, May 6, 2015):

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Heet Khara and Nasim Salim, residents of the United Arab Emirates.  According to the CFTC’s Complaint, Defendants engaged in unlawful disruptive trading practices known as “spoofing” in the gold and silver futures markets by placing bids and offers with the intent to cancel them before execution.

First Photograph Emerges Of The ‘Criminal Trading Mastermind’ Reponsible For The Flash Crash

First Photograph Emerges Of The “Criminal Trading Mastermind” Reponsible For The Flash Crash (ZeroHedge, April 22, 2015):

Wall Street has found a new, unwitting source of humor: the CFTC.

The reason, of course, is that according to the “regulator” the gullible investing public is expected to believe that one single person, operating out of a non-collocated, latency fortress in Hounslow…

The sun sets on the address where Nav Sarao Futures Limited is registered, in Hounslow

… is responsible for the May 2010 flash crash.

The implication being that the perpetrator has been caught and now confidence in broken markets can be restored, however what the CFTC has in effect done is further undermine faith in a market, which apparently is so defenseless it has absolutely no countermeasures to the simplest of predatory trading strategies, namely spoofing: spoofing which takes place millions of times every single day across all global markets (as we showed back in 2013 in Watch The Banned HFT Spoofing Algo In Action).

The CFTC’s inadvertent humor, however, is no laughing matter to the person implicated in the latest despeate attempt to scapegoat a non-US institution for the flash crash (just ahead of the statue of limitations running out no less): not only is Navinder Singh Sarao, a British national, facing decades in prison in the worst case as reported earlier, but moments ago he had to pay a massive 5 million pound bail to stay out of jail for the duration of his case: an amount that is usually reserved for Class A felons, those who have caused grievous bodily injury and suffering, or worse, instead of merely a BTFD opportunity.

Read moreFirst Photograph Emerges Of The ‘Criminal Trading Mastermind’ Reponsible For The Flash Crash

JPMorgan’s Blythe Masters Withdraws From CFTC: Furious Twitter Backlash Blamed

blythe masters_0

Blythe Masters Withdraws From CFTC : Furious Twitter Backlash Blamed (ZeroHedge, Feb 7, 2014):

Following our post yesterday which included the occasional F-bomb and got well over 40K reads since its posting late last night, the reaction was sharp and severe. So severe in fact that less than 24 hours later, Blythe Master has withdrawn from the CFTC. The culprit for Masters’ resignation in just 24 hours? A very angry Twitter.

From Bloomberg

Blythe Masters, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s commodities head, withdrew from an advisory committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission a day after her appointment was disclosed,  according to two people with direct knowledge of the decision.

Read moreJPMorgan’s Blythe Masters Withdraws From CFTC: Furious Twitter Backlash Blamed

AND NOW … The Total Farce Is Complete: JPMorgan’s Blythe Masters Joining CFTC

You can’t make this stuff up!

Flashback:

JPMorgan Employee Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade


blythe masters_0

The Farce Is Complete: Blythe Masters Joining CFTC (ZeroHedge, Feb 6, 2014):

We thought today’s newsflow and “market action” ranked pretty high on the absurd surrealism scale. And then we saw this.

  • BLYTHE MASTERS TO JOIN CFTC GLOBAL MARKETS COMMITTEE
  • JPMORGAN’S BLYTHE MASTERS TO JOIN CFTC ADVISORY COMMITTEE
  • CFTC SPOKESMAN COMMENTS ON BLYTHE MASTERS JOINING COMMITTEE

That’s right – you read it correct: “Blythe Masters, head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s commodities division, is joining an advisory committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said Steve Adamske, a spokesman for the regulator. Masters, 44, was invited by acting Chairman Mark Wetjen to sit on a global markets committee at the Washington-based regulator of futures and swaps, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Masters is scheduled to participate in a CFTC meeting on Feb. 12 to discuss cross-border guidance on rules, the person said.”

Read moreAND NOW … The Total Farce Is Complete: JPMorgan’s Blythe Masters Joining CFTC

Bank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients

Bank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients (ZeroHedge, Jan 25, 2014):

Every time a TBTF bank releases its 10-Q, we head straight for the section, usually well over 100 pages in, that discloses the bank’s total profitable trading days.

This is what the most recent Bank of America 10-Q said on this topic:

The histogram below is a graphic depiction of trading volatility and illustrates the daily level of trading-related revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2013 compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013 and March 31, 2013. During the three months ended September 30, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 97 percent, or 62 trading days, of which 69 percent (44 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $21 million. These results can be compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013, where positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 89 percent, or 57 trading days, of which 67 percent (43 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $54 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 100 percent, or 60 trading days, of which 97 percent (58 days) were daily trading gains over $25 million.

Read moreBank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients

CFTC Announces It Is Undercounting Size Of Swaps Market By As Much As $55 TRILLION

CFTC Announces It Is Undercounting Size Of Swaps Market By As Much As $55 Trillion (ZeroHedge, Dec 19, 2013):

What is $55 trillion between friends? Very little according to the CFTC. In perhaps the biggest under the radar news of the day – to be expected with every watercooler occupied by taper experts – the WSJ reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Wednesday that technical errors at two so-called swaps data repositories, which collect and supply regulators with transaction data, have led the CFTC to misreport the overall size of the swaps market by undercounting its size. Isn’t it curious how all these “glitches” always work out in the favor of preserving market calm and confidence and away from spooking investors and speculators? Either way, a better question is how big was the so called undercounting? The answer: as large as $55 trillion!

Regulators aren’t sure how much the repositories are undercounting. One CFTC official familiar with the matter said the discrepancy could be as high as $55 trillion, though another official said the figure is closer to $10 trillion once regulators cancel out certain transactions to prevent double counting.

One just has to laugh: the total US swaps market is what – roughly $400 trillion? So… just add enough notional to that number equal to the GDP of the entire world – or 4 times the size of US GDP – and call it a day. And in this environment somehow the Fed and other central planners are expected to have any clue what they are doing on a day to day basis?

Read moreCFTC Announces It Is Undercounting Size Of Swaps Market By As Much As $55 TRILLION

Apparently This MF Global ‘Clusterfuck’ Does Not Deserve Criminal Charges

Apparently This MF Global “Clusterfuck” Does Not Deserve Criminal Charges (ZeroHedge, July 1, 2013):

We salute the CFTC for finally, if belatedly, doing the right thing and going after Jon “the bundler” Corzine. However, we wonder, just how is the following documented exchange between Edith O’Brien, MFG’s assistant treasurer, and some MF Global employee, not considered crime-worthy by Eric Holder? Or is the US Attorney General too busy to answer, having to come up with his own alibi to avoid going to jail for lying to Congress under oath?From the MF Global Civil, not Criminal, Complaint

Just prior to 6:30 p.m. ET, O’Brien told Employee #2 on a recorded telephone line that the Firm would not be in compliance with customer segregation rules because funds were not being returned to customer segregated accounts:

O’BRIEN: It is a total clusterfuck . . . . They have to move half a billion dollars out of BONY to pay me back . . . . Tell me how much money is coming in and I will make sure it gets posted. But if you don’t tell me, then tomorrow morning I am going to have a seg problem . . . . I need the money back from the broker-dealer I already gave them. I can’t afford a seg problem.

Read moreApparently This MF Global ‘Clusterfuck’ Does Not Deserve Criminal Charges

The US Regulatory Vice Closes On Bitcoin

The US Regulatory Vice Closes On Bitcoin (ZeroHedge, May 6, 2013):

Just six weeks after the US Treasury decided enough-was-enough with this upstart non-fiat, non-controlled-by-TPTB currency (and applied money-laundering reglations), US financial regulators are now looking for supervisory control over Bitcoin. As The FT reports, CFTC’s Bart Chilton notes “it’s not monopoly money – real people have real risk in these instruments,” and  that regulating the controversial cyber-currency “is sure something [CFTC] needs to explore.” Chilton’s remit to regulate this “shadow currency” is predicated on it becoming a basis for derivative contracts as opposed to purely transactional (akin to the monitoring of physical oil transactions that can influence crude futures.) Since the Treasury’s March decision, at least three North American companies have had their accounts seized by the banks but while this attempt to control the virtual currency follows the ECB’s ‘ponzi attack’ last year, the ‘regulators’ may note that, “even if US regulations make it hard for Bitcoin businesses to operate in the US, that doesn’t mean it will make it difficult for people to use Bitcoin as a currency in the US. Bitcoin is a world currency.”

Read moreThe US Regulatory Vice Closes On Bitcoin

Matt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever … ‘The Illuminati Were Amateurs’

‘The Illuminati were amateurs’???

J.P. Morgan is a Rothschild front and the Illuminati do not only control the big banks and the governments, they also took over control of the media a long time ago:

J.P. Morgan Interests Buy 25 of America’s Leading Newspapers and Insert Editors:

U.S. Congressional Record February 9, 1917, page 2947

Congressman Calloway announced that the J.P. Morgan interests bought 25 of America’s leading newspapers, and inserted their own editors, in order to control the media.

Mr. CALLAWAY: Mr. Chairman, under unanimous consent, I insert into the Record at this point a statement showing the newspaper combination, which explains their activity in the war matter, just discussed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MOORE]:

“In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, ship building and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press in the United States.

“These 12 men worked the problems out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessary for the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.

“This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts for the news columns of the daily press of the country being filled with all sorts of preparedness arguments and misrepresentations as to the present condition of the United States Army and Navy, and the possibility and probability of the United States being attacked by foreign foes.

“This policy also included the suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served. The effectiveness of this scheme has been conclusively demonstrated by the character of the stuff carried in the daily press throughout the country since March, 1915. They have resorted to anything necessary to commercialize public sentiment and sandbag the National Congress into making extravagant and wasteful appropriations for the Army and Navy under false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it is ‘patriotism.’ They are playing on every prejudice and passion of the American people.”

So FORGET about the Illuminati (the real elitists) and just blame their bankster elite puppets, their government elite puppets (like Obama, Bush, Clinton etc.) and their corporate media presstitutes for everything instead!!!

George carlin sums it up best:

George Carlin: The American Dream (Video):
A short excerpt from the video “Life Is Worth Losing” (2005).

That said, enjoy Matt Taibbi’s otherwise excellent article and writing style.


The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There’s no price the big banks can’t fix

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever (Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, April 25, 2013):

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world’s largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that’s trillion, with a “t”) worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it “dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets.”

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world’s largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world’s largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.

Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It’s about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget.

Read moreMatt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever … ‘The Illuminati Were Amateurs’

Keiser Report: Semaphore Of Fraud – Silver Manipulation (Video)

See also:

Gold, Silver, Corn, And Brent Are Best Performers On The 5-Year Anniversary Of The Great Financial Crisis



YouTube Added: 09.08.2012

Descripton:

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss a financial journalist so dangerous the frontpage of the Financial Times dare not speak his name and the semaphore of fraud and fraud flows that is high frequency trading and silver manipulation. They also talk about blonde bimbo regulators and the self-police force that never finds any evidence crimes they themselves have committed. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to whistleblower Paul Moore, a former Head of Risk at HBOS, about financial holocaust and the City of London’s role in enabling banking fraud.

Neil Barofsky On Timothy Geithner: ‘We Should See People In Handcuffs’ (Video)

Barofsky On Geithner: “We Should See People In Handcuffs” (ZeroHedge, July 26, 2012):

There is no point in recapping the ongoing vendetta between former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky and former head of the NY Fed, and current Treasury secretary and resident TurboTax expert Tim Geithner. One need but follow the former on Twitter for a quick and concise sampling of the sentiments harbored vis-a-vis the latter. However, in the following interview Barfosky does touch on some points which in the context of the recent Liborgate, should be brought front and center, especially since the increasingly apathetic US audience seems to not care about one bit (as opposed to their distant cousins across the Atlantic for whom Lieborgate has become a daily distraction). Namely, what Barofsky says is that Geithner and other regulators who allowed Lieborgate to proceed should not only lose their job but we should see [Geithner] in handcuffs.”  Sadly that will never happen as it would actually be a deterrent to future crime among the highest echelons of America: something which is just not allowed to happen in a system whose very survival is increasingly reliant on rampant criminality.

To wit:

While Geithner pushed for broader reforms of LIBOR, he did not explicitly warn of possible rate manipulations and neglected to notify U.S. regulators at the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission to the wrongdoing, notes Barofsky.

It was a “message to the banks ‘if we commit fraud, we break the rules, don’t worry, we’re too big — they’ll never bring the appropriate steps against us,'” Barofsky says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. “And that is why we’ve had scandal after scandal after scandal.”

This was a “global conspiracy to fix one of the most important interest rates in the world,” Barofsky continues. “[Geithner] heard this information and looked the other way. Geithner and other regulators should be held accountable, they should be fired across the board. If they knew about an ongoing fraud, and they didn’t do anything about it, they don’t deserve to have their jobs. I hope we see people in handcuffs.”

Full clip:

There is no point in recapping the ongoing vendetta between former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky and former head of the NY Fed, and current Treasury secretary and resident TurboTax expert Tim Geithner. One need but follow the former on Twitter for a quick and concise sampling of the sentiments harbored vis-a-vis the latter. However, in the following interview Barfosky does touch on some points which in the context of the recent Liborgate, should be brought front and center, especially since the increasingly apathetic US audience seems to not care about one bit (as opposed to their distant cousins across the Atlantic for whom Lieborgate has become a daily distraction). Namely, what Barofsky says is that Geithner and other regulators who allowed Lieborgate to proceed should not only lose their job but we should see [Geithner] in handcuffs.”  Sadly that will never happen as it would actually be a deterrent to future crime among the highest echelons of America: something which is just not allowed to happen in a system whose very survival is increasingly reliant on rampant criminality.

To wit:

While Geithner pushed for broader reforms of LIBOR, he did not explicitly warn of possible rate manipulations and neglected to notify U.S. regulators at the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission to the wrongdoing, notes Barofsky.

It was a “message to the banks ‘if we commit fraud, we break the rules, don’t worry, we’re too big — they’ll never bring the appropriate steps against us,'” Barofsky says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. “And that is why we’ve had scandal after scandal after scandal.”

This was a “global conspiracy to fix one of the most important interest rates in the world,” Barofsky continues. “[Geithner] heard this information and looked the other way. Geithner and other regulators should be held accountable, they should be fired across the board. If they knew about an ongoing fraud, and they didn’t do anything about it, they don’t deserve to have their jobs. I hope we see people in handcuffs.”

Full clip:

Gary Gensler Explains How CFTC Allowed PFG To Steal $200 MM In Client Funds 8 Months After MF Global

Gary Gensler Explains How CFTC Allowed PFG To Steal $200 MM In Client Funds 8 Months After MF Global (ZeroHedge, July 25, 2012):

Former Goldman appartchik Gary Gensler is about to take the stage (again) and explain why the CFTC should exist at all after allowing not only MF Global but a few weeks ago, Peregrine Financial, to steal hundreds of millions in client money without any regulatory supervision at all. All we can say here is: Free Corzine!

Read moreGary Gensler Explains How CFTC Allowed PFG To Steal $200 MM In Client Funds 8 Months After MF Global

The MK2 Grenade: Mike Krieger And Max Keiser Take On The World Of Financial Crime – ‘It’s Official: The Shadow Banking System Is Now Bigger Than The Non-Shadow Banking System, … Many Hundreds Of Trillions Of Dollars Bigger Than The Real Economy’ (Video)

The MK2 Grenade: Mike Krieger And Max Keiser Take On The World Of Financial Crime (ZeroHedge, July 2, 2012)

There is a reason why WWII legendary “pineapple” grenade bore the initials MK2. Those who enjoy the works of Mike Krieger and Max Keiser are in for a treat, with this 2 for the price of 1 (technically for the price of zero) interview of Krieger by Keiser, as the MKs of the world unite, and take on financial fraud.

From Mike Krieger of Libertyblitzkrieg:

In case you missed it, Josh Brown recently published a list via the Huffington Post of what he believes are the 25 most dangerous people in financial media.  He definitely got the first two slots correct.  At the very top are Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, who unrelentingly publish their “Financial War Reports” daily here.  At the number two position, is Zerohedge, the best financial site on the web.  I have been fortunate enough to have collaborated with Max, Stacy and Zerohedge for the past two years and it has been an extremely rewarding experience.  To get to the point, below is my just released latest interview on the Keiser Report.  I think it’s the best one we’ve done in a while.  Enjoy!


YouTube

Barclays Found To Engage In Massive Libor Manipulation, Gets Wrist-slapped By Coopted Regulators

Barclays Found To Engage In Massive Libor Manipulation, Gets Wrist-slapped By Coopted Regulators (ZeroHedge, June 27, 2012):

We can finally close the case on the massive Libor manipulation issue that we first brough to the world’s attention back in January 2009 when we penned: “This Makes No Sense: Libor By Bank.” As of minutes ago, Barclays is the first bank to admit it has engaged in gross manipulation of the key benchmark rate that sets the cost of capital for $350 trillion in interest-rate sensitive products. As the CFTC notes, as it produly announces an epic wristslap of $200 million for Barclays Bank: “The Order finds that Barclays attempted to manipulate and made false reports concerning two global benchmark interest rates, LIBOR and Euribor, on numerous occasions and sometimes on a daily basis over a four-year period, commencing as early as 2005.” Surely this massive fine will teach them to never do it again, until tomorrow at least, when the British Banker Association once again finds 3 month USD liEbor to be… unchanged. In other news, who would have thought that the fringe “conspiracy” brigade was right all along once again.

From the CFTC:

CFTC Orders Barclays to pay $200 Million Penalty for Attempted Manipulation of and False Reporting concerning LIBOR and Euribor Benchmark Interest Rates

The Order finds that Barclays attempted to manipulate interest rates and made related false reports to benefit its derivatives trading positions

Read moreBarclays Found To Engage In Massive Libor Manipulation, Gets Wrist-slapped By Coopted Regulators

JPMorgan Illegally Let Lehman Brothers Count Customers’ Funds As Its Own

Gerald Celente on MF Global etc. :

No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: The Entire Financial System Is Collapsing! – This Is FASCISM! (Video, March 26, 2012 )

More on JPMorgan here:

JPMorgan’s Blythe Masters On The Blogosphere, Silver Manipulation, Gold-Axed Clients And Doing The ‘Wrong’ Thing (VIDEO)


Regulators: JPMorgan illegally let Lehman Bros. count customers’ funds as its own (Washington Post, April 4, 2012):

JPMorgan Chase illegally allowed Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose 2008 bankruptcy brought the financial system to the brink of collapse, to count customers’ money as its own, according to federal regulators.

The arrangement boosted the amount that Lehman could borrow from JPMorgan, where the customers’ money was deposited, regulators charged Wednesday.

Then, at the height of the financial crisis, JPMorgan refused to release the customer funds for about two weeks, until regulators ordered it to do so, regulators charged.

The charges were spelled out in an enforcement action against JPMorgan by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, JPMorgan agreed to pay $20 million to settle the civil case.

The matter adds another dimension of alleged lawbreaking to the history of Lehman’s downfall. It was also another vivid illustration that, even in highly regulated modern financial firms, basic controls can break down.

Last fall, the big brokerage firm MF Global collapsed with as much as $1.6 billion of customer funds missing and unaccounted for. There, too, it appears that clients’ money was treated as if it belonged to the firm.

Read moreJPMorgan Illegally Let Lehman Brothers Count Customers’ Funds As Its Own

Limited Edition Silver Proof: The Three Elements In Silver Manipulation

Limited Edition Silver Proof (ZeroHedge, Jan 10, 2012):

Commissioner Bart Chilton of the CFTC gave an interview this week with Jim Puplava that should interest you.

A number of subscribers asked me if I would comment on what Commissioner Chilton had to say. In commenting, I can’t help but try to be as objective as possible. For the record, I commend Chilton for the role he has taken on the important issues, like position limits, concentration and in addressing allegations of manipulation in silver. He is the only commissioner to have done so. I believe there would be no ongoing silver investigation were it not for him. I think he is one of the good guys and I started writing to him about these issues in 2007.

I agree with most of what Commissioner Chilton had to say, particularly about concentration and position limits and manipulation. I’m glad the interview was mostly about potential manipulation in the silver market. I’m going to skip over all the things I agree with Chilton on and confine my remarks to where I disagree with him. Agreement can be boring. Even though the disagreements are few, I believe they go to the heart of the matter.

Chilton pointed out that it is difficult to prove manipulation in a court of law. He indicated that there are three elements necessary to prove manipulation – the intent to manipulate, the ability to manipulate and the success in the manipulation. I accept his legal definition. Where I respectfully disagree with him is in the degree of difficulty in establishing all three elements in the silver manipulation.

Let’s go through the three elements.

Let’s forget for a moment that silver has been under investigation by the CFTC’s Enforcement Division for almost three and a half years and that countless civil lawsuits have been filed against JPMorgan for allegations of silver manipulation in 2008. Let’s just focus on the last year, when silver experienced two separate 35% price declines in a matter of days. Such a decline in a world commodity for no observable reason. Yet it happened twice in silver within months.

As I have written recently, as a result of the second silver price takedown in September, a tight-knit group of commercials traders bought the equivalent of 165 million ounces in net COMEX futures contracts on the price decline. This is equal to 22% of the world’s annual 740 million oz silver mine production. These same traders came close to buying the same amount in the big May silver price decline as well. This is an extraordinary amount of silver futures, much larger than any manipulative long position attributed to the Hunt Bros. in 1980. It is not possible to buy such a large amount of silver by accident. It had to be intentional. There is the element of intent that Commissioner Chilton speaks of.

The next element necessary to prove manipulation is the ability to manipulate by a concentrated position or otherwise (collusion among different traders). It would seem that the ability to manipulate is also self-evident, as it has been done on more than one occasion in silver. This also ties into Commissioner Chilton’s third element, namely, success being brought about by intent and the ability to manipulate. It couldn’t have been more successful for the COMEX commercial crooks than the results they achieved (at great cost to innocent investors and traders).

I think the problem that Commissioner Chilton and the agency are having is that they have convinced themselves they need proof by wire-taps and emails and other incriminating documentation (like actual confessions) before they can prove manipulation in silver. But the COMEX commercial crooks are not likely to accommodate them. The Commission has something better than that already in hand, namely, the very data that I rely on in analyzing the market. The Commission should stop wishing and waiting for evidence to drop out of the sky and just study the COT and Bank Participation statistics that they produce on a regular basis.

Because it appears so easy for the Commission to prove a silver manipulation on the basis of the three elements outlined by Commissioner Chilton, my guess is that there is something else holding the agency back from ending this scam. They just don’t want to end it. Perhaps there is a political motive or the knowledge that JPMorgan and the CME may be too big to sue. It’s hard to see how the three elements can’t be proved by the public data.

Read moreLimited Edition Silver Proof: The Three Elements In Silver Manipulation

Gerald Celente: ‘IT’S FASCIST. CAN’T YOU SEE IT?’ – ‘It’s A TAKEOVER’ – ‘Hail Obama!’ – ‘The United States Has Become One Big Warsaw Ghetto’

A MUST-SEE!

And watch Joe Biden in the second video!

See also:

The Federal Reserve And The $16 Trillion Bankster Bailout


If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist


YouTube Added: 03.12.2011


YouTube Added: 03.12.2011

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– Wired: U.S. Senate Wants The Military To Lock You Up Without Trial

– Natural News: Occupied America: Senate Bill 1867 Would Allow US Military To Detain And Murder Anti-Government Protesters In American Cities

– FOX News: Freedom Watch – Judge Napolitano Interviews Rand Paul On Unconstitutional INDEFINITE DETENTION Bill S. 1867 (Video)

– InfoWars: Senate Bill Would Allow US Military To Indefinitely Detain Americans Without Charge Or Trial Anywhere In The World

– Mother Jones: Is the US Getting Domestic Indefinite Military Detention (Also For US Citizens And Legal Permanent Residents) For Thanksgiving?

60 Minutes: Speculation Affected Oil Price Swings More Than Supply And Demand


The Price Of Oil: The historic swings in oil prices last year were the result of financial speculation from Wall Street and not supply and demand. Steve Kroft investigates.

(CBS) About the only economic break most Americans have gotten in the last six months has been the drastic drop in the price of oil, which has fallen even more precipitously than it rose. In a year’s time, a commodity that was theoretically priced according to supply and demand doubled from $69 a barrel to nearly $150, and then, in a period of just three months, crashed along with the stock market.

So what happened? It’s a complicated question, and there are lots of theories. But as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, many people believe it was a speculative bubble, not unlike the one that caused the housing crisis, and that it had more to do with traders and speculators on Wall Street than with oil company executives or sheiks in Saudi Arabia.


To understand what happened to the price of oil, you first have to understand the way it’s traded. For years it has been bought and sold on something called the commodities futures market. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, it’s traded alongside cotton and coffee, copper and steel by brokers who buy and sell contracts to deliver those goods at a certain price at some date in the future.

Read more60 Minutes: Speculation Affected Oil Price Swings More Than Supply And Demand

COMEX silver and gold pricing is manipulated

For years, the data contained in the weekly Commitment of Traders Report (COT), issued by the CFTC, have indicated that several large COMEX traders have manipulated the price of silver and gold. For an equal number of years, the CFTC has reluctantly responded to public pressure over this issue with blanket denials of any wrongdoing. Many analysts have agreed with the CFTC’s position, conjuring up various ways to explain why a massive short position held by a handful of traders is not manipulative.

The recent widespread shortage of silver for retail purchase coupled with a price collapse appears to have shaken these analysts’ confidence that the COMEX silver market is operating ‘fair and square.’ Well it should, since there is no rational explanation for a significant price decline going hand in hand with product shortages other than collusive manipulation.

For any remaining doubters that COMEX silver and gold pricing is manipulated, the following CFTC data should be considered. This data is taken from a monthly report issued by the CFTC, called the Bank Participation Report. Here’s the link for the report:

http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/bankparticipation/index.htm The relevant data is found in the July and August futures sections. I will condense it.

Read moreCOMEX silver and gold pricing is manipulated

A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading

Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.

But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol’s books last month, it found that the firm was in fact more of a speculator, holding oil contracts as a profit-making investment rather than a means of lining up the actual delivery of fuel. Even more surprising to the commodities markets was the massive size of Vitol’s portfolio — at one point in July, the firm held 11 percent of all the oil contracts on the regulated New York Mercantile Exchange.

The discovery revealed how an individual financial player had gained enormous sway over the oil market without the knowledge of regulators. Other CFTC data showed that a significant amount of trading activity was concentrated in the hands of just a few speculators.

Read moreA Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading

Food Riots and Speculators

Food riots have broken out across the globe destabilizing large parts of the developing world. China is experiencing double-digit inflation. Indonesia, Vietnam and India have imposed controls over rice exports. Wheat, corn and soy beans are at record highs and threatening to go higher still. Commodities are up across the board. The World Food Program is warning of widespread famine if the West doesn’t provide emergency humanitarian relief. The situation is dire. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez summed it up like this, “It is a massacre of the world’s poor. The problem is not the production of food. It is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis.”

Right on, Hugo. There is no shortage of food (This is disinformation – The Infinite Unknown); it’s just the prices that are making food unaffordable. Bernanke’s “weak dollar” policy has ignited a wave of speculation in commodities which is pushing prices into the stratosphere. The UN is calling the global food crisis a “silent tsunami”, but its more like a flood; the world is awash in increasingly worthless dollars that are making food and raw materials more expensive. Foreign central banks and investors presently hold $6 trillion in dollars and dollar-backed assets, so when the dollar starts to slide, the pain radiates through entire economies. This is especially true in countries where the currency is pegged to the dollar. That’s why most of the Gulf States are experiencing runaway inflation.

Read moreFood Riots and Speculators