From Jesse:

"But what about firms that have very large short positions including naked short positions with leverage? Would they have an incentive to push prices lower into key events of mark to market? (read 'Carmine' and others)

The answer is yes, particularly if markets are thin and sentiment has been battered by repeated bear raids and commentary from their friends in the financial press. They also often spread the word, one way or another, amongst big traders and friends at funds that tend to follow price momentum to add more 'punch' to their efforts.

And of course it does not hurt if a major source of bullish trading amongst small speculators has been taken down into bankruptcy.

Is this why we are seeing this now? Few can know for sure, but if we see a sharp rally in January and resumption of the bull trend the answer is more probably 'yes.'

And if so, this is just another hidden price that is being paid by a nation that cannot bring itself to be free of a financial oligarchy and their corrupting influences.