Wagers anyone?
Ed Steer... thanks to GWR:
"Friday was a great day for us precious metals bugs. And as Ted Butler pointed out in his interview, although the COT report shows that the bullion banks are almost back at record short positions in both gold and silver... there are other things that appear to be going on behind the scenes that could change things very quickly. Firstly, gold is being added to GLD... and silver is disappearing out of the SLV and the Comex-approved depositories. Then there's this new financial reform package that's about to be signed into law... plus the goings-on in the Middle East. And there are murmurings of a lawsuit somewhere in the CFTC's and Comex's near future as well.
I would not be out of this market... or, heaven forbid, short this market... for all the tea in China. "
Snippets from MIDAS, thanks to Scruffy:
Silver is heading to a default and the price is capped or knocked down! Where are the regulators?
The "internal adjustments" that transfer silver back to the client's (investor) stockpile suggest to me that the bullion banks have been borrowing silver from the privately owned stockpiles at COMEX and using the silver to make good on deliveries. Yet, there is no record of the silver leaving either the registered or the eligible stockpiles in the first place. These curious, movements of metal do not generate confidence in COMEX published data, or in the administration of this 'market'…
Some bullion banks may hold stockpiled silver too, but not the ones doing the massive shorting. That's all naked. These mega shorts can't do this sort of thing year after year without many people realizing they are naked short. Every time they borrow metal to make good on their naked short exposes the eligible stockpile owners to risk of default too. Maybe the silver was removed from accounts without informing the owners, and then backfilled in later as an "internal adjustment".
If this was being done to my bullion holding at COMEX, I would be very upset, particularly if my silver was borrowed without my knowledge or consent. I would pull my silver out, as removal of private metal to make good on naked shorts by banks suggests that COMEX does not recognize property rights in their bullion stockpiles. This appears to be exactly what is happening as now the eligible stockpiles are rapidly declining….....
I think the shortage of silver is so dire, and the naked short position so large that COMEX is allowing allocated stockpiles to be pillaged to bail out the bullion bank shorts. The owners will not be pleased when they find out about this practice and many will pull their metal.....which is the pattern we see.
Where are the regulators? The CFTC is facilitating this sham!