Ex-Goldman trader blows whistle on silver and gold market manipulation by JP Morgan (Done for Fed)

New York Post ^ | April 11, 2010 | Michael Gray

[JustTheTruth]

Metal$ are in the pits

Posted: 2:10 AM, April 11, 2010

There is no silver lining to the activities of JPMorgan Chase and HSBC in the precious-metals market here and in London, says a 40-year veteran of the metal pits.

The banks, which do the Federal Reserve's bidding in the metals markets, have long been the government's lead actors in keeping down the prices of gold and silver, according to a former Goldman Sachs trader working at the London Bullion Market Association.

Maguire was scheduled to testify last week before the Commodities Futures Trade Commission, which is looking into the activities of large banks in the metals market, but was knocked off the list at the last moment. So, he went public.

"JPMorgan acts as an agent for the Federal Reserve; they act to halt the rise of gold and silver against the US dollar. JPMorgan is insulated from potential losses [on their short positions] by the Fed and/or the US taxpayer," Maguire said. <...>

"HSBC conducts an ongoing manipulative concentrated naked short position in gold. Silver is much easier to manipulate due to its much smaller [market] size," Maguire added.

<...> Also during the CFTC hearing, Jeff Christian, founder of the commodities firm CPM Group, said that the LBMA, the physical delivery market for gold and silver in the UK, has been using leverage, which is another way to depress the price of gold and silver.

Christian said that the LBMA -- the same market Maguire trades in -- has leverage of about 100-1 on the gold bars settled on the exchange. In layman's terms, that means if 100 clients requested their bullion bars be delivered, the exchange could only give one client the precious metal. ... [exerpt only]

[mommya]

I don’t think anyone has seen the gold since the 70’s when some congressmen supposedly went in there and looked around.

There is someone out there who has been wanting an audit of the vaults at Fort Knox for some time now.

I shall not bring up his name in order to keep this thread on track.

[blackie]

"Is it REVOLUTION time yet??"

It's closer than you think!

Be Ever Vigilant!

[Lancey Howard]

In 1988 the Hunt brothers were convicted of federal charges for manipulating the price of silver.
It's okay for the government to do it, though.

[Frantzie]

Yeah right. I guess Fort Knox let Wikipedia in to count the gold. I would believe that most of the gold left Fort Knox with Auric Goldfinger and the NY Fed with Jermey Irons as Hans Gruber’s brother before I believe any numbers from the Treasury Dept or the NY Fed.

[penelopesire]

Wow..what happened to Greenspan over the years? Sounds like he had his head on his shoulders back then...now he seems like just another tool of the very statists he railed against in 1987. ???

[ckilmer]

The US dollar is inevitably going to decline against everything...

.....
don’t put money on that one.

The likelihood grows daily that the pubbies will storm back into congress come the fall. there will be a night of the long knives on the budget and —less likely—higher taxes. that combined with the growing US economy—and it is growing in 2010—though it may be siphoning off 2011 growth—will lower the deficit.

The euro is in deeper doo doo.

The US dollar will decline against the chinese yuan but against the yen and euro— not so much. the likelihood right now is that the dollar will strengthen against the euro. betting is they will go back to parity.

[winodog]

Would you share what that means?

[jiggyboy]

My own reply to that post was very similar. I read some number of years ago that his single-minded efforts in helping to absolutely wreck the economy of the United States were in fact a breathtakingly bold and brilliant long-term plan to get us back onto the gold standard, but I dismissed it as satire.

[FloridaGeezer]

I’m up to here with this game. We already know the answer to any audit of the Fed, they’re bankrupt. It’s time for the government to abolish the Fed.

[Velveeta]

Special, isn’t it? Ruin the economy - have a party.

[matthew fuller]

I feel SOOOO much better now! /s

[Velveeta]

IMO, it means those who have manipulated and wrecked the economy gloat and party on.

[jiggyboy]

I think deficit spending is the problem because it is increasing the money supply, which is the cause of inflation. I won’t quibble with you on fractional reserve banking under the gold standard.

[ckilmer]

There is always risk. The question is where does the greater risk.

For that its helpful to have accurate info.

Will gold go to 2000?

People mostly say these days that its good to have some gold denominated assets in a balanced portfolio. The emphasis here is on “Balanced Portfolio”

[penelopesire]

“.... but I dismissed it as satire.”

If we believed that one, we might also believe that Obama is actually an elaborate plant by the vast right wing conspiracy. His mission was to govern as an ‘in your face’ communist dictator,destroy our economy and so scare the normal, sane and good people of this country, that a democrat would never be elected as president, a senator or congressman again. Thus saving capitalism from a communist coup for all time and putting us back on the road to fiscal sanity.

Naw...it couldn’t be that..could it? LOL!

[Texas Fossil]

No surprise here. And the manipulation is not just in the Gold & Silver Markets

What do you think the Department of Agriculture is all about? They say it is price stablity. But what it is really about is control and depressing food & fiber commodity prices.

[I Hate Obama]

“JPMorgan acts as an agent for the Federal Reserve; they act to halt the rise of gold and silver against the US dollar. JPMorgan is insulated from potential losses [on their short positions] by the Fed and/or the US taxpayer,” Maguire said.”

Looks like someone missed their plane flight with the Polish President.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

but against the yen and euro

I agree that the dollar will not necessarily decline vis a visany currency who's government dosn't inflate their currency as much. Thus, you may be right about the Euro. They have been in the same economic death spiral.

[Pan_Yan]

Wasn’t it Jefferson who predicted a fed bank would do this?

“The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals… it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted."
Letter to John W. Eppes, 1813

“Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.”
Letter to John W. Eppes, 1813

“Our public credit is good, but the abundance of paper has produced a spirit of gambling in the funds, which has laid up our ships at the wharves as too slow instruments of profit, and has even disarmed the hand of the tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will cure itself. I wish it may; but I have rarely seen a gamester cured, even by the disasters of his vocation."
Letter to Gouverneur Morris, 1791

“[The] Bank of the United States… is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution… An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries."
Letter to Albert Gallatin, 1803

Source

[rsobin]

Help me here. Was JP shorting metals with no personal risk? Was this the crime?