In Ted Butler's Archive

A TEN YEAR DEAL?

Here’s a thought that I fully acknowledge didn’t originate with me, but from a close associate, even though it incorporates many of my findings. If it does come to fruition, I will gladly reveal my associate’s identity to give him his proper due; but in case it doesn’t, I’ll spare him any embarrassment for an incorrect premise. As I think you’ll see, I can’t deny that my friend’s premise seems to tie up all the loose ends about the silver manipulation.

We will soon hit the ten-year anniversary of the most seminal event in modern silver history – the takeover of the failing investment bank, Bear Stearns, by JPMorgan in March 2008.  Bear Stearns failed as a firm due to a variety of problems which, in effect, caused a run on the bank. But what makes the failure and subsequent takeover so prominent in silver history was that Bear had been the biggest short seller in COMEX  silver and gold futures and was replaced in that role by JPMorgan.

Since the takeover, JPMorgan has not only remained the largest short seller in COMEX silver futures, but has gone on to rack up a perfect trading record on the short side of COMEX silver; taking profits on every new short position it has added since taking over Bear Stearns and never taking a loss. More importantly, for at least the past seven years, JPMorgan has used its ironclad control over silver prices to accumulate the largest investment position ever witnessed in physical silver. It did that at the depressed prices it created with its massive paper short position on the COMEX.  At this point JPM’s physical silver position amounts to 675 million ounces.

I’ve been on JPMorgan’s case since the fall of 2008, when I first uncovered that the bank was the new king short in silver. Because the evidence has been so strong that JPMorgan has both manipulated the price and accumulated a massive amount of physical silver, I lost any fear of referring to JPMorgan as crooked in its silver (and gold) dealings. Yes, I still send the bank all my articles and I assume I would have heard from bank officials had they had any objection to what I write.

Because the takeover of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan was necessitated by concerns for the stability of the financial system, it was, basically, arranged and overseen by the highest levels of U.S. government financial regulators, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. In a nutshell, Bear Stearns was too big to fail.  Yet fail it did, although the U.S. government and JPMorgan took strong measures to contain the damage from the Bear Stearns failure. One of those measures was to prevent Bear’s failure from affecting the silver and gold market.

As the biggest short seller in COMEX gold and silver futures contracts, Bear Stearns’ failure would be expected to cause prices to explode in an orgy of short covering by the biggest short suddenly gone bad. Actually, silver and gold prices had been running to new highs back then as Bear Stearns lurched toward bankruptcy in mid-March 2008.  From the start of that year, silver had jumped by $6 to $21, a new 28-year price high and gold hit its then all-time high of over $1000, up $150 since year end, with both price highs occurring on the very day that Bear Stearns was taken over, March 17, 2008.

JPMorgan took over from Bear Stearns at the behest of the U.S. Treasury and the Fed. Almost from that day, silver and gold prices began falling and didn’t stop until October of 2008, when silver traded below $9, nearly 60% lower than when JPMorgan took over. Gold fell from its then all-time high of $1020 to under $700 by that October. And on these massive price declines in 2008, JPMorgan bought back much of its massive COMEX short position with profits of many hundreds of millions. This was the first of the many coming successful manipulation campaigns conducted by JPMorgan in the silver market. All this can be easily substantiated.

Because of the involvement of the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve in JPMorgan taking over Bear Stearns was so obvious, it’s probable that JPMorgan demanded and received something in return for “saving” the financial system. That reward was being allowed to dominate and control the silver (and gold) market without regulatory interference.  Subsequently, the CFTC has handled JPMorgan with kid gloves. How else to describe the behavior of JPMorgan in the silver market that no other entity could get away with? We don’t have to go much further than JPM never taking a loss on COMEX silver short positions and how it can be allowed to be both the biggest paper short and biggest physical buyer simultaneously.

My friend contends that the U.S. Government made a ten-year deal with JPMorgan, giving the bank immunization against regulatory oversight in matters involving silver (and gold). And we’re certainly close to the ten-year mark of any such agreement. The ten-year deal fits perfectly with my “big one” premise, as it is downright remarkable what a good position JPMorgan has recently put itself in for a liftoff in price. My friend holds that the coming end to this year marks the end of the ten-year deal and I’m in no position to argue. Aside from me fervently wishing that his take will be the right take, I can find nothing to dispute it.

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