You are here

'Evidence of manipulation but not enough for charges' may mean government itself is the perp

Section: Daily Dispatches

12:56p HKT Friday, April 5, 2019

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

In commentary posted this week at GoldSeek's companion site, SilverSeek, silver market analyst Ted Butler reports confirmation from former Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton that JPMorganChase assumed from the collapsing investment bank Bear Stearns a massive short position in silver and has been allowed to manipulate the silver market for years right to the present day.

Butler complains that he was misled years ago by Chilton's responses to complaints of silver market manipulation, but Butler seems to be missing a way of construing the former commissioner's key comment. That is, Chilton has said the CFTC's long-running investigation of the silver market found evidence of manipulation but not enough to bring charges. That could mean that the underlying manipulator hasn't been JPMorganChase at all but the U.S. government using JPMorganChase as a broker in the market.

... Dispatch continues below ...



ADVERTISEMENT

Great Bear Doubles Fully Funded Drill Program
from 30,000 to 60,000 Meters, Adds Third Rig

Company Announcement
Monday, April 1, 2019

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Great Bear Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: GBR) today reported that the company's board of directors has approved doubling of the current 30,000-metre drill program to 60,000 meters. The company remains fully funded for this expanded drilling.

Approximately 12,000 meters of the original 30,000-metre drill program remain to be drilled (see the announcement of September 20, 2018), with expected completion of the original program by July 2019. The extended program will continue through 2019.

The company also announces that it plans to add a third drill rig during the extended program. The two drill rigs currently on site will concentrate on defining and expanding the Hinge and Dixie Limb zones along strike and at depth. The third rig will explore regional targets and assist with the Hinge and Dixie Limb drilling as required. Timing of deployment of the third drill rig is subject to completion of regional target definition. ...

... For the remainder of the announcement:

https://greatbearresources.ca/great-bear-doubles-fully-funded-drill-prog...



After all, the CFTC repeatedly has refused to answer the question -- first posed by GATA and then by U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-West Virginia --

http://gata.org/node/18684

http://gata.org/node/18832

-- as to whether the commission has jurisdiction over market manipulation undertaken by the U.S. government, directly or through intermediaries, or whather such manipulation is authorized by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 as amended since then. It's a simple yes-or-no question and the commission's refusal to answer it even for a member of Congress is strong evidence that an honest answer would be embarrassing.

In an interview in 2012 with CNBC the head of JPMorganChase's commodities desk, Blythe Masters, gave support to such an understanding. She said the bank had no position of its own in the monetary metals but was trading them only for clients. Unfortunately Masters was not asked whether those clients included governments and central banks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9Me4qFZYo

But such surreptitious trading in the monetary metals futures markets is confirmed by futures exchange operator CME Group itself:

http://gata.org/node/18925

As the founding editor of The Washington Monthly magazine, Charles Peters, often remarked: The scandal isn't what's illegal but what is perfectly legal.

Butler's commentary is headlined "Confirmation, Outrage, and Disgust" and it's posted at SilverSeek here:

http://silverseek.com/commentary/confirmation-outrage-and-disgust-17622?...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16