My Worst Fear

Ted Butler is a smart guy, but what he fails to see is that CFTC regulator Bart Chilton is a plant, put in his position merely to appease the watch dogs.  Meanwhile, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and his minions continue to look the other way as the silver price manipulation continues unabated.  The other CFTC commissioners are mouthpieces for the CME and the very firms they are supposed to regulate.

While Butler believes Chilton to be one of the "good guys", Butler doesn't realize that Chilton is more likely a double agent undermining  Butler's futile attempts to expose the ongoing silver price suppression at the COMEX.

Memo to Ted: you constantly deride the public for burying their heads in the sand on the market-rigging tactics in the commodities exchanges.  It's time for you to recognize that you've been sleeping with the enemy.

Memo to the public:  avoid paper trading of precious metals contracts--Butler is correct in that assessment.  But don't expect our government regulators to help rectify the crimes in progress--they are in on it, because rising precious metals prices expose the Fed's reckless currency debasement campaign.  You're better off buying physical gold and silver instead.  This will counteract the bullion banks' paper naked shorting shenanigans.

http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/my-worst-fear-8306

CFTC and financial regulation reform

If CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton is correct, position limits will be imposed and enforced for derivatives trading on commodities in the COMEX Exchange. Let's see if they enforce these new laws in the precious metals pits, forcing the big bullion banks (JPMorgan Chase and HSBC) to unwind their huge naked short positions.

I'm still wary of Commissioner Chilton's enthusiasm because CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has talked a good game, but has been slow to respond to complaints of price manipulation. He's also a former executive at Goldman Sachs. Having said that, his predecessors were asleep at the wheel for decades--probably complicit in the price suppression schemes of gold and silver, so at least his acknowledgment that futures markets need more scrutiny against price manipulation is somewhat encouraging.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1_q88rlUkw

Goldman Sachs and CFTC has a crooked history

http://www.offshorealertconference.com/2010/articles/Goldman-Sachs-Fraud-alleged-by-SEC-is-not-an-isolated-incident.asp

"As I've stated several times before, I found out exactly how little Goldman Sachs cared for their clients when OffshoreAlert exposed a Goldman Sachs-sponsored criminal enterprise called Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, which went on to commit a $1 billion insurance/reinsurance fraud and a $50 million securities fraud."

"The architect of this scandal was Reuben Jeffery III, a Goldman Sachs managing director who later went on to become Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission."

"It is remarkable that someone who was either knowingly involved in a massive fraud or, alternatively, could not spot it when it was right in front of his face could be deemed suitable to be a top regulator," says Marchant. "What confidence can investors have in the financial system when someone who has played a leading role in a major scandal is appointed to such a lofty position, apparently because of his political connections rather than his ability to regulate? No wonder the financial industry is in such a mess."

BTW, the current Chairman of the CFTC, the watchdog for the commodities exchanges, is one Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs executive. He talks a good game about leveling the playing field, but I'm thinking he is another Goldman Sachs plant. That's just my jaded opinion.

Bart Chilton on position limits

https://research.tdwaterhouse.ca/research/public/Markets/CommoditiesNews?documentKey=1314-N23256396-1

The rhetoric from Bart Chilton is positive, but we'll see if CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler concurs.

CFTC and position limits this Thursday

Thursday, March 25 could be a historic date for precious metals investors, as the CFTC will hold a hearing on position limits and exemptions.

http://agoracom.com/ir/Crystallex/forums/discussion/topics/409676-is-pog-s-manipulated/messages/1350508#message

Let's hope CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler takes the proper path. I have my doubts, because the bullion banks have had free reign to manipulate the precious metals pits forever, and Gensler's history at Goldman Sachs leads me to believe it will be business as usual at the CRIMEX-er, COMEX.

Gensler - CFTC Chairman of the people?

I've chronicled CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler's attempts to increase transparency in futures markets, specifically in derivatives. One proposal is to transfer over-the-counter trading of derivatives into an exchange, where price discovery is more transparent. He is targeting the energy complex, particularly crude oil. We'll see if he ratchets up regulation against price manipulation in the precious metals sector.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a3OkrdITAZtA&pos=10

CFTC and position limits

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B10OV20100114

"The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that the agency's planned meeting in early March to discuss possible position limits on metal futures and options contracts will focus on gold and silver contracts."

Let's see if CFTC Chairman Gensler is serious this time.

This Reuters article does a decent job of capturing the CFTC's comments on concentrated position limits in the COMEX, but then lays an egg with this wrong conclusion:

"A review of possible position limits on the COMEX gold and silver market should not affect prices because of the vast physical spot gold market outside of the United States, traders said."

Um...reducing and enforcing position limits in the silver and gold market exchanges will cause prices on said precious metals to rise, as the bullion banks will no longer be able to execute their price suppression schemes. Regulating abusive price manipulation will expose the shortage of physical silver and gold bullion, as true market price transparency is achieved.

Gary Gensler on CFTC reform

With all due respect to Gary Gensler for being a bright, intelligent, and nice man, he's speaking out of both sides of this mouth. He seems like an ethical, reasonable person, but let's read between the lines. He's worked on Wall Street for 18 years with Goldman Sachs, an investment firm (and now commercial holding bank) with some of the smartest traders and arbitrageurs on the Street. They can influence, if not manipulate markets.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-06/u-s-should-regulate-dealers-cftc-s-gensler-says-update2-.html

His rhetoric of enforcing concentrated position limits in the energy pits (and commodities markets, in general) is shallow, because manipulation of markets with outsized positions is exactly how the big commercial banks profit. The gold and silver COMEX exchange is home to some of the most grotesque short positions in a price suppression scheme obvious to everyone except the blind or captured. In other words, I'll believe the enforcement of CFTC position limits when I see it. Until then, see my disclosure.

Disclosure: long gold and silver mining shares.