Silver Precious Metal: When U.S. government manipulates commodity markets, it's perfectly legal and CFTC can't act
In commentary today two of our friends, silver market analyst Ted Butler and GoldSilverPros.com editor and publisher Robert Kientz, seem astonished that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission does nothing about manipulation of the gold and silver markets.
Butler's astonishment is expressed in an essay posted at SilverSeek and headlined "Man Bites Dog":
silverseek.com
Kientz's astonishment comes in commentary headlined "CFTC Failures Lead to Massive Market Manipulation," which is accompanied by a YouTube presentation here:
goldsilverpros.com
But there is no need for astonishment, for the explanation has been apparent for many months as a result of the commission's refusal to answer a crucial question put to it not only by GATA but also by a member of Congress, Rep. Alex X. Mooney of West Virginia.
That is: Does the CFTC have jurisdiction over market manipulation undertaken by the U.S. government or by brokers acting for the U.S. government or with the government's approval?:
gata.org
gata.org
GATA construes the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, as amended, as giving the Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund the authority to trade secretly and manipulate any market in the world.
An assistant U.S. attorney representing the Treasury and Federal Reserve in GATA's first litigation, Howe vs. Bank for International Settlements et al., confirmed GATA's understanding at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston in November 2001:
gata.org
After all, if governments and central banks are not manipulating the currency and commodity futures markets, why has the CME Group, operator of the major U.S. futures exchanges, long offered special volume trading discounts to governments and central banks for secretly trading all contracts on those exchanges?:
gata.org
All questions about what seems to be the CFTC's long failure to do its job against manipulation of the gold and silver markets are answered if one understands that the manipulation is just execution of U.S. government policy.
The great journalist Charles Peters, retired editor of The Washington Monthly, offered the crucial insight decades ago: The scandal is seldom what is illegal. The scandal is usually what is perfectly legal.
We encourage Ted and Bob to check it out.
Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org |
