The Cork Board

[the cork]

Silver miners must know their market is rigged but are too afraid to protest
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2017-05-03 01:49. Section: Daily Dispatches

By Bill Rice Jr.
Tuesday, May 2, 2107

As silver is again being pushed down hard and good for no market-related reason, I can't help but wonder what the mining company executives are thinking. One thing we know. They won't protest. Two reasons are typically given for this "grin and bear it' attitude:

1) The bullion banks doing the rigging also provide the miners' much-needed financing. The miners can't get on the wrong side of these guys.

2) Governments supporting the rigging also can harm mining companies in any number of ways, such as permitting, environmental regulations, OSHA-type violations, audits, etc.

I've come to believe that the miners know that their markets are rigged but they are simply afraid to protest this. They fear retaliation.

Now think about this. If my assumption is accurate, the miners know that these two groups are suppressing the price of their product. They also know that they can't say anything. If they do, one or both of these groups will come after them. Is this not an acknowledgment that manipulation is taking place? That is, if the miners did not fear such retaliation, would they not be screaming bloody murder?

They can't blame the banks or the government because the banks and the government could put them out of business.

Another way of stating this is the miners know that manipulation is important to the bullion banks and to governments. The miners know that they should not do anything that would interfere with a program so important to these groups. In their view, challenging such entities would probably be the equivalent of committing corporate suicide.

Summarizing: There are two common-sense reasons given for the miners' refusal to defend themselves.

Both involve fear of reprisal/retaliation. Miners cannot attack governments or bullion banks without great risk of harm to their companies. Miners are not unlike the shop owner paying tribute to the Mafia in a city whose justice system is controlled by the Mafia.

The governments and the bullion banks are bullies who threaten the existence of anyone who might challenge their goals or call them out.

This, I believe, is the unspoken secret of the manipulation. Of course the miners know who is working against the interest of their employees and shareholders. They are simply afraid of them. And, probably, rightly so (a frightening acknowledgement of the Mafia-type tactics powerful and "honorable" players in our system are willing to employ, or at least tacitly threaten.)

Also, as top managers of mining companies are paid very well, they have even less of an incentive to take a chance and fight back. These people live very comfortably even as the price of their product is kept lower than it would be in a free market.

Of course, the bullion banks and the agents of government orchestrating the manipulation know that the mining companies fear them and will not say a word.

The mainstream news organizations aren't going to write anything. The politicians aren't going to hold any hearings. The regulators know to look the other way. The miners themselves aren't going to utter a word in protest. The bullion banks and governments manipulate the monetary metals markets simply because they can.

They have seemingly covered all their bases. All the potential threats to this operation have been neutralized.

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Bill Rice, Jr. is a freelance journalist in Montgomery, Alabama. He has been publisher and managing editor of newspapers in Troy and Montgomery, Alabama, and has written many commentaries for precious metal internet sites.

http://www.gata.org/node/17338