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Jeff Nielson is the writer/editor of Bullion Bulls Canada. He came to the precious metals sector as an investor in the middle of last decade, and quickly decided this was where he wanted to focus his career. Jeff's background includes four years of Economics at the University of British Columbia, before he went on to earn his law degree from that same institution.

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Preemptive Strike Against Precious Metals Nears End

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Originally appeared at BullionBullsCanada.com.

I have been intentionally silent on the gold and silver markets for the past several weeks. Prior to that, I wrote several pieces just after and just before the latest take-down in precious metals to alert readers/investors to the fact that “volatility is the new weapon” of the banksters in their efforts to suppress this market.

Since that time, there simply has not been the opportunity to provide readers with any substantive analysis of the current situation. In most of the recent take-downs in precious metals over the past year or so there have been obvious “prongs of attack” for us to focus upon.

In May, it was the five, outrageous rapid-fire increases in margin requirements by the CME Group in the silver market – with the last four of those increases being implemented despite the fact that silver prices were already falling sharply.  Prior to that, at the beginning of February the banksters employed a “suicide bomber” in the gold market to briefly drag down prices.

In this case however, I’ve been unable to discern any single action which would or could account for the especially blatant manipulation of these markets – at a time when all the economic fundamentals and all the seasonal factors were greatly favoring another strong rally in precious metals. Rather, this particular take-down seems to have involved everything but the proverbial “kitchen sink”.

Negative “lease rates” for gold and silver, massive shorting, manipulative margin-hikes and direct collusion between governments all appear to be at work at present. Why have I added “collusion by governments” to this list? It has been abundantly clear from the price action in the gold and silver markets that the buyers have been in charge of these markets for at least the last two years.

The reason why recent manipulation operations by the banksters have been exceptionally brief and shallow is because each time the bullion banks created a brief “sale” on gold and silver the stampede of buyers would immediately drive prices higher any and every time prices neared key support levels. Thus we must conclude that there has been broad collusion during this current take-down: a “deal” between the desperate bankers and the Big Buyers to allow prices to remain at current, depressed levels – most likely in return for a guarantee of a large quantity of real bullion for them to divvy-up between themselves (the “spoils” of their Libyan Campaign, perhaps?).

This attack on precious metals (and most commodity groups) appears to have been an all-out desperation measure. This is the “shock and awe” which the CME Group attempted to create in the silver market in May with its reprehensible conduct. Except while the Manipulators failed with their efforts in May, they certainly appear to have succeeded now with a large portion of the retail investment community.

Indeed, using a military analogy, the massive volatility which the bullion banks first introduced into this market in September could be thought of as an artillery barrage – to “soften up” the market for the take-down which was to follow. The combination of the two tactics appears to have had a significant psychological effect.

What readers must understand, however, is that none of this matters with respect to the long-term trend for this market – except to significantly increase the upward pressure on prices. The entire reason for attempting to put investors literally in a state of shock is to prevent them from thinking rationally.

Why is the price of silver at more than $30/oz today instead of under $5/oz as it was roughly a decade earlier? Because pricing silver at $5/oz caused a 90% decline in global inventories.  The banksters could no more prevent the laws of supply and demand from dictating the long-term trend ten years ago than they can today. Indeed, they are much less able to do so – having squandered the vast majority of their bullion in their prior years of manipulation.

The overriding principle here is a very simple one: the lower prices go in the short term, the higher they will go in the long term. Period. The reason the banksters have tried to scare investors “witless” is precisely so that they will forget that fundamental principal.

Given that the extreme move downward guarantees (at least) as extreme a move upward in these markets, this begs the question: why have the banksters (and our governments) colluded in an extreme but ultimately futile endeavour at the present time?

The answer is staring us in the face, now merely days away: another massive infusion of Western money-printing – into the ocean of Western banker-paper which has already flooded markets. Most likely this will be an even larger single burst of printing-press activity than what took place immediately following the Crash of ’08.

The money-printing about to take place in Europe has already been clearly telegraphed. EU leaders meet on Sunday for their next “Final Solution” for the made-in-Wall-Street “Euro debt crisis”. They have already made it clear that more “massive bail-outs” are on the way – for deadbeat banks and governments alike.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Helicopter Ben has been engaged in especially absurd stalling. He continually tells the market there is “more the Fed can do”, while avoiding once again spouting his favorite euphemism: “quantitative easing”.

He is utterly transparent. The Fed was harshly criticized around the world for its last money-printing spree. Thus the U.S. could not be first to crank-up its printing press this time. Rather, the ridiculous spin which will be attached to the next “helicopter drop” by the Fed will be that either the Euro debt crisis “forced” the Fed to follow suit, or (more likely) this will be portrayed as the Fed “supporting the actions” of the EU by cranking-up its own printing press in unison.

While we all know never to say “never” in this market, it appears that the latest operation has neared its expiry date. Put another way, it does not appear feasible that the investment community could remain “witless” enough not to fathom the impact of more, massive money-printing. Furthermore, one must also assume that whatever bribery has been used to control the Big Buyers has more or less been used-up.

As always, no matter how strongly we believe that the market is about to reverse higher, investors must refrain from the use of margin in these markets. The combination of psychopathic Wall Street bankers utterly unrestrained by any regulation; the row of debt-saturated Western domino-economies, ready to topple at any moment; and the most mind-numbingly incompetent collection of “political leaders” ever assembled equates to the potential for any and every form of economic catastrophe which one could dream-up in their worst nightmare.

Having perhaps scared readers “witless” again, let me reiterate the immutable principles which guide the precious metals market. Nothing the banksters can do to these markets can alter the long-term trend. The more extreme the downward pressure on precious metals in the short-term, the higher prices will go over the longer term.

Last but not least, for 5,000 years precious metals have been humanity’s only true economic “safe haven”. And today, more than at any other time in centuries we are in desperate need of a haven.

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