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“This whole thing stinks of self-dealing and manipulation."

"I disagree. This is what it looks like when the government seizes control of the markets.”

Actually, both statements are true. The major manipulators have been the Fed, Treasury, BoE, and the ECB. The Fed and Treasury and their Midtown playmates together constitute the "Plunge Protection Team", formally revealed, when Paulson convened the managing members for the President last March, as "The President's Working Group on Capital Markets".

At last, the "invisible hand" becomes visible: the one that's been hammering down gold, silver, and now oil since the mid-90's, intervening in the stock market to paint volume reversals and key reversal days and squeeze the shorts, and screw around with rulemakings that require people in Europe and Asia trying to sell their collateralized debt vehicles and credit-default swaps to settle in dollars -- kiting the dollar and cratering precious metals and oil.

And they're doing it all on our Platinum Card.

Of course, JMHO if you don't like it.

For want of some government intervention, affordable energy was lost.
For want of affordable energy, consumer confidence was lost.
For want of consumer confidence, consumer spending was lost.
For want of consumer spending, American economic growth was lost.
For want of American economic growth, global economic growth was lost.

All for the want of some government intervention.