The following are comments by Bob Rinear as they appeared in Saturday's International Forecaster:

Gold and silver aren't priced by physical supply and demand. Their prices are set totally and wholly by paper trading. Futures. Derivatives. Forward leases. Swaps, Government interventions, etc.

While many roll their eyes and snicker at anyone that suggests that these markets are controlled and manipulated, the fact is that they are and they have been for decades. In Gold there was the "London Gold Pool" of the 60's that set the price at 35 dollars the ounce and bought and leased gold daily to keep that price locked. You can't exhibit a stronger case of "manipulation" than that. In Silver it really began being manipulated by the coinage act in 1965 and President Johnson himself stated that investors shouldn't try and look for gains in silver because the US would "dis-hoard" their stockpile to keep the price down. In other words, our Government via the President of the United States declared flat out that they would manipulate the silver market. It doesn't get much clearer than that.

After the London pool went under, and Central banks and Governments got more technology via communications equipment, the manipulations went from outright "open outcry" to underground. But it was and still is there. Yet not many understand how it works, and thus their attention is diverted in the wrong area. For instance JPM is usually the target of the silver manipulation crowd because on any given day they might be short a third of the entire silver production for a full year. In fact one silver trader Andrew McGuire went to the CFTC and forecasted that a manipulation would occur on a specific day, and "bingo" just like he said, the price moved to the levels he suggested and at the exact time. Obviously it was manipulation. Lawsuits flew. At one time I believe there were more than 4 separate suits about manipulation.

That is why there's so much outrage over a recent Financial Times article that says they are close to shutting down the CFTC investigation into silver manipulation because after 4 years they've not found enough evidence of it. So who's right? Are all the silver traders just nuts and there's really no manipulation? Or...is the CFTC just covering for JPM? Is this an example of the foxes guarding the hen house? Yes and no. They see the manipulation, but they are not allowed to prosecute the perpetrators. Why? Because the perp is the Government.