This was predicted a while back, and reposted last month: http://www.barnhardt.biz/2015/08/
Yes, and when you read articles like the one you posted, you begin to grasp what a toxic stew it has all become. The crap tables in Vegas have more integrity than our markets, banks, and financial gamblers do, and that is not even an exaggeration.
Now the opposite scenario: a STRONG basis. Let’s say cash silver is trading at $32.00 and the futures are trading at $28.00. A trader might take physical silver that he has in inventory and sell it in the cash market, and then immediately take those proceeds and buy back and equal number of ounces in the futures market and take delivery. Since the same number of ounces in the futures market cost $4.00 per ounce LESS, he would end up with the same number of ounces in his inventory PLUS $4.00 per ounce in CASH in his pocket. If he and many other traders saw this condition and they all sold cash silver and bought the futures, this would, again, converge the spread between the cash market and the futures market.
And no one goes to jail for this, let alone even be exposed. Enron execs went to prison for what exactly again?