david morgan uses the word "manage" instead of "manipulate" in his essay on the cftc's denial of any evidence of manipulation in the silver market. to me those are just different shades of gray, and he makes it clear that there is nowhere near enough physical bullion available to satisfy all of the potential claims.

for some time now it has been clear that physical silver and paper silver are two different animals. in the may 26 issue of coin world, a dealer is offering silver eagles at $3 over spot. the mint has mentioned spot shortages of blank planchets as an excuse in the past, and now they are rationing supplies of the 2008 coins they were able to produce.

but according to its annual production schedule, the production of the following year's eagles always begins in july. if the us mint has trouble getting its hands on enough metal to make coins, they could end the production of 2008 eagles despite the strong investor demand, and if they do that, there will be no more eagles until next january. or they could delay the minting of 2009 coins until later in the year, and try to buy some more time. if they terminate the silver eagle program altogether, that would be a sure sign of a shortage of physical silver.

http://news.silverseek.com/SilverInv...