this is from ed steer:

Ted had a couple of things to say in a private note to clients early on Friday. The first was this..."The sole reason for this latest swoon in the price of silver is coordinated and collusive manipulation upon the part of the big commercial interests, including JPMorgan, on the CME Group's Comex market. I realize that I have to make this statement repeatedly whenever there is a significant sell-off in silver. I don't set out to be repetitive, nor do I have my mind made up in advance; it's just that commercial manipulative behavior always stands out as the sole cause of every silver sell-off. Certainly, one would think if it weren't so clear, that the commercials were engaged in collusive illegal behavior on what I call a criminal enterprise of a market [the CME], one of them would object to my characterization of them as crooks. I'll let you know when, and if, that occurs."

"Collusion is a strong word. I don't use it loosely. It's easy for me to label the large Comex commercial trading entities as operating collusively on this sell-off, because they have operated collusively on every silver sell-off over the past 25 years. The proof is simple and clear...and contained in CFTC data...and both the COT and Bank Participation Reports. This sell-off...and every sell-off...have always been met with uniform commercial net buying. There has never been an exception to this pattern. How is it possible that the big commercials can always find themselves to be net buyers on every sell-off? Easy--they are acting collusively. In fact, considering their easily-documented history, it is not possible for them not to be acting collusively. How otherwise could one cohesive group always end up buying big on every decline?"

Then there was this comment on what happened in the silver spread market earlier this week. This is only two of the many paragraphs that silver analyst Ted Butler used in his explanation...and I don't completely understand it myself... "On Wednesday, the Comex experience an epic event in the silver spread market. Let me state this clearly--the spread difference between the various trading months in Comex silver futures experienced the largest price changes in history. The price direction of the spreads was to relative price strength in the nearby months...and weakness in the more deferred months; a dramatic "tightening" of the spreads that may be a precursor to backwardation, or a premium developing on the nearby months. Let me by frank--I'm not sure what this monumental spread price move may mean at this point. There is no news from knowledgeable and trusted observers, just that the market changed."

The spread tightening was unusual in that it didn't appear driven by delivery considerations. Generally, spread pricing is more gradual and trending than the sharp out-of-nowhere event that occurred on Wednesday. It appeared to be driven by spread traders for financial reasons. The tightening was completely at odds with the dramatic fall in the price of silver these past few days, as such spread tightening would normally be thought to result in sharply rising silver prices. Instead, the opposite occurred. I don't know how this is connected to the manipulation, but I have been conditioned to believe that there can be no coincidences in a market as crooked as silver. I don't mean to leave you with more questions than answers regarding the spread event, but I don't want to make things up. I'm sure we'll know more as time rolls on."

http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/gold-standard-fully-supported-alan-greenspan