From Ed Steer:

Yesterday's selloff in gold and silver began about two hours before the Comex was due to open in New York. Of course, once the Comex traders went to work, gold's decline accelerated. This lasted until London closed. The tiny rally that ensued was quickly snuffed out once the regular Comex session ended. Silver just declined all day long. Of course both metals continued downwards into this morning's trading in the Far East. Both silver and gold briefly touched new lows for the move at that time.

Where the hell this all ends is only known by a couple of American bullion banks that hold the vast majority of the short positions in both gold and silver. They are taking absolutely no prisoners in their attempts to force what few leveraged longs are left to sell out to them. Where the bottom of this particular barrel is for them is hard to tell. We are so far below the 200-day moving averages in both metals, it's hard to believe that there's a leveraged long left out there that hasn't received a margin call and sold out by now. So who the hell's left that the boyz are after?

The Commitment of Traders report is due on Friday. The cut-off for that report was yesterday at the close of trading. Will Monday and yesterday's data be in it? I ask that question every week, because the boyz are flat out breaking the law...so why would lying in a report be a big deal to them? I'll let you know what I think in my Saturday morning rant.

A couple of things on the Fannie and Freddie debacle. I see in a Financial Times story "that the Bill Gross-managed Pimco Total Return fund reaped a $1.7 billion pay day following the US government take-over of home loan giants Fannie and Freddie." In another FT story, the US Congressional Budget Office has stated "that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be directly incorporated into the federal budget. The CBO bombshell came as a surprise to the Bush administration. The White House could take a different view on Fannie and Freddie and exclude them from its budgets." That wouldn't be a surprise to anyone, as most war expenditures are off-budget items as well...along with a lot of other things.

There's only one story worth posting today, and that's silver analyst Ted Butler's latest commentary (which is co-authored by Israel Friedman) about the ongoing criminal activities on the COMEX...while the CFTC and your mining companies look on and do nothing. The essay is entitled "The Speed of Sound". I have already sent e-mails to everyone who Ted has suggested that I send them to. I know that you're all depressed about what's happening to our investments these days, but it would take you less than ten minutes to fire off an e-mail to these clowns just to let them know you're out there. It will make you feel better to strike a blow...any blow...rather than just sitting there and doing nothing. This is not a spectator sport...and if we don't help ourselves...nobody else will. The link is here.

The U.S. equity markets had a bad hair day yesterday. Let's see if the President's Working Group can make the pigs fly again today.

See you tomorrow.

Casey Research correspondent-at-large Ed Steer is a keen observer of the financial scene and a board member of GATA.org.