Yesterday (as reported by Zero Hedge) Bart Chilton, one of the CFTC commissioners said that they need to investigate “Bitcoin” because as he put it, “This is not monopoly money – real people have real risk in these instruments.” Yes very “real” so to speak. This is a “cyber” currency with no “touchy feely” actual coins, there are no derivatives (yet) like options or futures and as for the “size” of this market we are talking about just north of a whopping $1 billion. I don’t mean to sound crass here but $1 billion? Jon Corzine stole $1.6 billion just a couple of years ago. He took this money from “real people” unless you think of farmers as alien holograms. Here we are nearly 2 years later and we hear nothing but crickets about MF Global and the dishonorable Jon Corzine walks the streets a free man. What’s up with this?
No I haven’t forgot about the other investigation, you know… the one nearly 5 years old looking into the forced silver crash of 2008. I was worried a month or two back that the statute of limitations would run out before the CFTC finished their “extensive” investigation and let the culprits off the hook, that’s no longer a problem as the clock just got reset with the latest blatant manipulation. How do Bart Chilton and the rest of the regulatory crew explain the 2013 instant replay of 2008? Price gets crashed from “sellers” yet what supposedly was sold can only be bought at a 30% premium… IF you can find it at all? We are still waiting… and now “Bitcoin” is on the front burner I’m sure that silver (and gold) will not be addressed until AFTER exchange defaults occur. For that matter, they won’t be reported on after the fact either because we will then have bigger, MUCH BIGGER problems facing us… like where the next meal will come from.
I really wanted to believe that Bart Chilton was truly a “white hat” as he allowed Bill Murphy to testify before the commission as well as allowing the brilliant Adrian Douglas (may God rest his soul) to speak. In fact, it was these exchanges that led Jeffery Christian to admit that silver and gold were traded 100-1 paper to physical (at least) on the London Metals Exchange. At this point I just don’t know and suspect that ‘ole Bart is just pulling our chains. Silver is real. We who have invested in silver are “real” people aren’t we? We took real risk (well not really) exchanging our fiat dollars for silver didn’t we? So… why “investigate” a ham sandwich $1 billion market which trades a product that cannot be felt, held in your hand or even seen when “real” (YES VERY REAL) fraud has occurred in a very real market of a strategic metal… and so publicly that an 8 year old could understand?
As I have said before many times, the CFTC cannot possibly come to a conclusion of the truth. The “truth” would crash the entire system within 72 hours of any statement. The “truth” will not be exposed until AFTER the system crashes and no one will even care at that point because everyone will be too busy dealing with the “every man for himself” scenario. So, Mr. Chilton, please do investigate and castigate Bitcoin as it is “infringing” on the U.S. Dollar’s turf. When you come out with your findings in a month or so we will feel SO much better!
I had planned to stop right here but I thought to myself, “If Bart Chilton really is a white hat and cannot get the other 4 commissioners to do their jobs (paid for by public taxes), he should resign.” He should not only resign but he should go “whistleblower.” He has been given time, lots of it to get the truth out. 5 years and being handed the evidence (not to mention again seeing it with his own eyes again currently) on a platter should make anyone with a conscience do the right thing. He has not and I can no longer think of him as “a good guy” until he actually does something with the evidence. “We’re looking into it” doesn’t cut it anymore.
Bill,
You are 100% correct as usual.
I also use to think of Bart Chilton as a good guy, but I have since realized he knows the truth but will not tell the US citizens what is going on. A year ago I e-mailed him suggesting he resign and tell the world the truth and he would always be remembered as a honest person. His reputation is at stake and I feel he will be hurt by staying silent.
As to bitcoin maybe Bart will scare people out of it and into silver and gold. I hope so before all these people get stiffed in the electronic melt down. If they go back into fiat paper money it will be a disaster.
Well, as the stomach turns, tomorrow comes another day.
Good luck to everyone.
Bart Chilton is bribed, bought, and paid for. End of Discussion. White hat my rosey red ass!!!
@ BILL H
Barts reply to various statements below
It isn’t illegal in futures law. Futures trade many times the physical every day.
******************
To: Chilton, Bart
Subject: what do you think
Big US bank gold & silver naked short positions: The practice of naked shorting (sales with no intention of ever delivering the metal bars on the loading ramps) is plain illegal and corrupt beyond description. Imagine selling Mercedes Benz cars to push the price down, never to delivery the cars. The incredible sham takes place every day in the COMEX market, supported by the LBMA in London. The so-called paper gold price has no bearing or connection anymore to the physical Gold price. The consequence has been a profound shortage of gold bullion, gold bars, gold coins, and gold talents, even gold jewelry.
D
From: “Chilton, Bart”
Subject: RE: did you see this
I had another email on it, but thanks. I’m now forwarding to our oversight folks to get their take. Thx.
B
To: Chilton, Bart
Subject: did you see this
did you see this event
“[O]n Friday, April 12, 2013 ,the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. …
“…with naked shorts, no physical metal is actually sold…
“Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.
“Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?
“What happens when 500 tons of gold sales are dumped on the market at one time or on one day? Correct, it drives the price down. Investors who want to get out of large positions would spread sales out over time so as not to lower their sales proceeds. The sale took gold down by about $73 per ounce. That means the seller or sellers lost up to $73 dollars 16 million times, or $1,168,000,000.
“Who can afford to lose that kind of money? Only a central bank that can print it.”
D
From: “Chilton, Bart”
Subject: RE: as per bix..care to comment
Sorry for the delay.
If the evidence was clear, we will act. We’ve looked at the huge drop in precious metals and are still doing so. At this point all I can say is that a lot of large institutional investors that have a fairly long only strategy got out of the market over the last few months. We also saw a lot of high frequency cheetah trading around the volatility. Often times we see markets that are disconnected from supply and demand. We all know that speculation plays a role and that supply and demand do[‘t rule markets with an iron fist. At the same time, there certainly needs to be some correlation. When there is not, that raises our antennas and we look deeply.
Over the years, I have been particularly concerned about precious metals. Even though I can’t say anything based upon confidential information, I can say that at times over the years I believe—based upon public information—that there have been efforts to manipulate the markets (silver and gold).
That is about all I can tell you now. Hope it was somewhat useful. We will keep at it and hopefully catch he bad guys when we find them.
Best,
B
To: Chilton, Bart
Subject: as per bix..care to comment
The silver world is in CHAOS so just sit back and stay strong. All the commodity regulators are scratching their heads as to upholding the ECONOMIC LAWS of supply and demand. The CFTC is in serious turmoil. Their first silver investigations found that there was not silver manipulation on the COMEX paper market because the “Futures and Options” prices were in line with the “Physical Cash Prices”. That is no longer the case and physical silver is scarce yet the price keeps plummeting, Mints cant keep up with production and premiums have gone through the roof.
The CFTC set their guidelines of what constitutes manipulation in the first two silver investigations and NOW the evidence is clear…the futures and options markets are setting the price of physical silver and this is 100% contrary to commodity law.
This is the primary pricing mechanism violation that the CFTC is charged with guarding against.
Again…
The price of physical silver is being SET by the futures and options markets.
The COMEX Silver trading must be shut down immediately.
D
I think we need to get the FBI to investigate the CFTC, and an Independent Investigator to investigate the FBI. As for Bitcoin, it’s not for me because I can’t hold it in my hand. They really should leave it alone though, or they’ll end up screwing that one up as well.
Maybe “screwing it up” is what it’s all about?
When it comes to Bart, you need to remember the old saying “keep your friends close… but keep your enemies even closer!” Bart is playing everyone who can’t see who pays him. It is not in his vested interest to help out anyone that is working against his employer. Five years to investigate something… even for a government agency this is a long time. Also think about his comments over the last several years that he has limited resources and needs more. Now he wants to look into another market situation, really… 😉 But, watch, this investigation will go fast and a new regulation will be written in less than a year. Priorities and focus; priorities and focus; Commodities markets are not a priority nor are they a point of focus.
he should go “whistleblower.”
That could hurt his off shore banking accounts, and could also hurt his health if he were to have “an accident”.