Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
It turns out that GATA made the Financial Times' internet site this afternoon after all -- likely for publication in tomorrow's print editions -- but only in a way suggesting that the newspaper is not willing to publicize any details of surreptitious government intervention in the monetary metals markets.
Your secretary/treasurer's comment to the FT about the Reddit/WallStreet Bets scheme to "squeeze" silver, solicited by the newspaper Friday, was this:
"If Reddit-inspired investors think that some powerful elements, with the surreptitious support of governments and central banks, are shorting silver and silver mining company stocks in pursuit of suppressing the price of a monetary metal that potentially competes with government currencies and bonds, of course I agree with them.
"If they think they can defeat governments and central banks, creators of infinite money, as easily as they can defeat a hedge fund or two, I admire their courage and wish them the best of luck.
"I would encourage them to inquire into the use of the Central Bank Incentive Program sponsored by CME Group, operator of the major U.S. futures exchanges, which provides volume trading discounts to governments and central banks for their surreptitious trading in the commodity futures markets:
"Such an inquiry might give them a hint about what they're up against."
As you may see below, only the first paragraph of your secretary/treasurer's comment was used. Its reference to the Central Bank Incentive Program of CME Group, operator of the major U.S. futures exchanges, in which governments and central banks are given volume trading discounts for surreptitiously trading all futures contracts in the United States, was removed.
That is, GATA's attempt to provide the FT's readers -- and thus the whole respectable financial world -- with documentation of what is usually dismissed as "conspiracy theory" was defeated by copyediting.
All the same, we may be consoled because the FT mentioned GATA and spelled its name right and refrained from any derogation. That is a small start. And we may guess that the removal of the telling documentation was not the reporter's doing but that of his editor following policy set by higher authorities -- maybe not just the newspaper's chief editors but also the Bank of England.
After all, even this tellingly edited report may provoke the curiosity of a few FT readers who will search out GATA on the internet and review our summary and documentation files --
http://gata.org/taxonomy/term/21
-- and find themselves slipping into the parallel universe whose existence they never suspected, a universe in which governments operating in secret are properly understood to define conspiracies and where mainstream financial journalism is recognized as their tool.
Maybe the story will prompt even a financial journalist or two to wonder why he never puts a critical question to a central bank, or never is allowed to.
Fighting the most cosmic frauds and injustices can take a while and be wearying, but as the poet wrote a long time ago:
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light.
In front the sun climbs slow -- how slowly --
But westward -- look -- the land is bright.
Excerpts from this afternoon's FT story are appended.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
* * *
Silver Price Retreats Rapidly in Blow to Few Retail Buyers
By Henry Sanderson and Neil Hume
Financial Times, London
Monday, February 1, 2021
A rally in the price of silver fuelled by a sudden burst of interest from retail traders rapidly unwound today, with many veteran investors left scratching their heads over the episode.
Silver fell as much as 8 percent to $27 an ounce, after leaping 12 percent the previous day to the highest level in eight years. The London Bullion Market Association, which oversees the silver market, said more than 1 billion ounces of silver were traded on Monday, more than three times the average towards the end of last year.
The pullback underlines the difficulties facing small investors, even when they combine forces, in influencing the global silver market, where $6 billion worth of the metal changes hands in a typical day. It also reflects growing pushback on the internet forum Reddit against the effort to push up silver prices -- a strategy posed by a user last week. ...
Analysts said bullion banks such as HSBC and JPMorgan did not have speculative "naked short" positions in silver, and if anything would make money by selling silver to exchange traded funds and helping miners hedge exposure. ...
Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that silver producers and so-called swap dealers including banks were short silver before last week’s sudden rally.
But the banks were likely to have taken the position only to hedge their holdings of physical silver, meaning the impact from the sudden price rise would be neutral, according to analysts.
Instead, hedge funds and other speculators -- who were net long more than 44,000 silver contracts on Comex last week -- would be the likely winners from a rising silver price.
Analysts noted that the language promoting silver on Reddit was similar to that of gold bugs who for years have blamed low gold and silver prices on artificial suppression by the big bullion banks, an impression that was made worse by JPMorgan's admission in 2020 that it had manipulated precious metals futures over eight years.
The U.S. bank paid a $920 million settlement with U.S. authorities over the practice known as spoofing, which involves quickly placing and withdrawing buy and sell orders to give other traders a false impression of demand.
Chris Powell, a director at the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, one of the most prominent of the gold enthusiasts, said he applauded the action by the Reddit poster.
"If Reddit-inspired investors think that some powerful elements, with the surreptitious support of governments and central banks, are shorting silver and silver mining company stocks in pursuit of suppressing the price of a monetary metal that potentially competes with government currencies and bonds, of course I agree with them," he said.
Retail investors poured $93 million into the world's largest silver-backed exchange traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust on Monday, the third day of rapid net inflows, according to VandaTrack, which collates data from major brokerages. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.ft.com/content/77e6fef6-37ff-4f8e-abd6-4c2d65ac120c
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