Many a precious metals bug knows that the price of this hedge against financial mismanagement is manipulated; heck, in another life this author has written extensively about the matter in other media as one of these “deluded conspiracy theorists”. Conspiracy theories aren’t credible though, as many a former publisher will tell you, so we won’t get into the reasons why we know that the precious metals markets are rigged; instead here’s a full-blown admission by the very mainstream and extremely “credible” Deutsche Bank (it’s like the more they lie, cheat and manipulate the markets the better their reputation).
“The plantiffs accused Deutsche Bank of conspiring with Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO), Barclays Plc (BARC.L), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) and Societe General (SOGN.PA) to manipulate prices of gold, gold futures and options, and gold derivatives through twice-a-day meetings to set the so-called London Gold Fixing.”
“Silver future traders in 2014 sued a group of banks including Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings Plc and Bank of Nova Scotia alleging they unlawfully manipulated the price of the metal and its derivatives, echoing similar claims brought previously against financial firms over alleged manipulation of gold prices. Later, UBS AG was also named as a defendant in the silver-fixing case.”
“Traders alleged the banks abused their position of controlling the daily silver fix to reap illegitimate profit from trading, hurting other investors in the silver market who use the benchmark in billions of dollars of transactions, according to a version of the complaint filed in April 2015. Of those four banks, only Deutsche Bank has reached a settlement.”
“In addition to valuable monetary consideration, Deutsche Bank has also agreed to provide cooperation to plaintiffs, including the production of instant messages, and other electronic communications, as part of the settlement. In Plaintiff’s estimation, the cooperation to be provided by Deutsche Bank will substantially assist Plaintiffs in the prosecution of their claims against the non-settling defendants.”
It is well worth noting that in 2013, the CFTC (the US commodity regulator, then headed by former Goldman Sachs banker Gary Gensler… no comment…) had concluded a five year investigation into silver manipulation by reporting that they had found no evidence of foul play.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) Division of Enforcement has closed the investigation that was publicly confirmed in September 2008 concerning silver markets. The Division of Enforcement is not recommending charges to the Commission in that investigation. For law enforcement and confidentiality reasons, the CFTC only rarely comments publicly on whether it has opened or closed any particular investigation. Nonetheless, given that this particular investigation was confirmed in September 2008, the CFTC deemed it appropriate to inform the public that the investigation is no longer ongoing. Based upon the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring an enforcement action with respect to any firm or its employees related to our investigation of silver markets.
As it turns out, the US regulator wasn’t looking hard enough. Shocking.
Sources: Reuters, ZeroHedge, The Free Thought Project, Gold Seek
This article (Deutsche Bank Admits That Silver Market Is Manipulated, Agrees To Snitch On Conspirators) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author(CoNN) and AnonHQ.com.
I have never understood the notion of investing in gold and silver. Mainly all the people whom preach this are the underground bunker, the world is ending, conspiracy folk you speak about. They always talk about how the economy is unsustainable because our government refuses to real in their spending. Which I happen to agree with. But in the event of a full flown economic collapse/depression, I have never understood why gold would be worth anything. I would think things like food, ammunition, even things like cigarettes would be more valuable for bartering purposes. What good is a 20 lb chunk of gold going to do you in rural America in the event of collapse? Might as well have a 20lb of iron to use as paper weight. Gold has no practical purpose to 99% of the world. As you are experienced in this field perhaps you could correct my thinking on the matter?
I think this comes down to the fact that gold has been reveared by civilisations throughout history, so it is has a pretty good track record. In the event of the collapse you speak of a currency to facilitate trade (non like for like goods) would be likely to still emerge although the value of some items necessary for survival would go up, as you say. Trading individual items like ammunition or food is limited by the demand for them.
I am not sure that your view of what would happen in the case of a global recession is necessarily the case. A much more positive transition is conceuvable. The end of the global economy is not the end if the world, just the end of something we invented.
I’m with Jaydon Inott, but wanted to add that there is no certainty of anything in the near and/or distant future.
The argument for gold is that we used it for jewelry and other luxurious displays. In modern times electronic devices carry certain amounts of gold in them. The most important aspect is what was said below: the test of time. Gold has been to bartering what containers are to logistic issues today. Not a necessity per se, but extremely practical. Note that I am not saying we need it in the future. Just spewing out summary or if you like, status quo. Inott’s last sentence says it all though 🙂