From Ed Steer:

Gold and silver did virtually nothing throughout Far East and early European trading. But that all changed at 9:30 a.m. in New York, when JPMorgan pulled its bids and the prices of both metals fell off a cliff. What makes these guys look even more ridiculous is the fact that they pulled exactly the same procedure at exactly the same time on Monday...to the minute! These guys have no imagination at all. They might as well signed their autograph on gold and silver charts all over the world..."da boyz were here!" Here's the gold graph...which looks like the silver graph.

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As for silver, it did manage to 'lose' 20 cents in overnight trading before the bids got pulled at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. Here's the silver graph...which looks like the gold graph.

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Yesterday's low in gold...$905.70 for the April contract...came within $10 of the 50-day moving average. In silver, the low was $12.43...and the 50-day moving average is at $12.12...so we're getting close. They just have to engineer one more waterfall decline during Comex trading today and it will be "mission accomplished". That's if they can do it...or if they want to do it. So far, the U.S. bullion banks [JPMorgan and HSBC USA] are following their usual script to the letter...what GATA and Ted Butler call the "same old, same old" drill. Hey...it's worked for them for decades, and the CFTC is protecting them...so why should they change their modus operandi now?

Open interest for Monday showed a decline in gold o.i. of 2,211 contracts to 367,342. For silver, the decline was 1,066 contracts to 93,036. There were 141 gold contracts delivered yesterday, with the big issuers being Prudential Bache [100 contracts] and Fortis Clearing [40 contracts]. The big stopper was JPMorgan [95 contracts]. In silver, there were 404 contracts delivered...with the big issuers being JPMorgan [286] and Prudential Bache [78]. The big stoppers were Goldman Sachs [215] and JPMorgan [113]...and, yes, you can be both an issuer and stopper at the same time...as is the case with JPMorgan here. GLD was unchanged, and the SLV was down 100,000 ounces. Comex warehouse stocks in silver were basically unchanged. I was very encouraged by the performance of the HUI yesterday. Is someone sensing a bottom?

The usual N.Y. gold commentator had the following to report..."This week's European Central Bank statement of condition showed an €214 million decrease in 'gold and gold receivables' which 'reflected the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank'. This is 10.86 tonnes, and compares to 8.3 tonnes the previous week and 7.76 tonnes the week before that. As noted previously, it looks as if a captive CB has started a gold sales prorgram. This is the first time in many weeks that the sales volume has exceeded the notional 9.6 tonnes which is the implied average...if the WAG2 quota were to be sold evenly...not that that is obligatory."..."Deplorably, the Istanbul Gold Exchange web site cryptically notes 'import Data: The gold and silver import not figures for February 2009.' The same was said for January...the fact is that the IGE has never reported zero imports for either metal in the almost 15 years of data it carried...let along both for two months. One suspects this value window into Middle Eastern gold imports has been closed."

This commentator also mentioned that The Gartman Letter sold another unit of gold and proposed to "return as aggressive buyers of gold" in the $880-$905 zone. [Note to Dennis: If your friends at JPMorgan pull their usual trick...that could be today. - Ed]

In other news...in a Bloomberg story, the headline reads "Hidden Pension Fiasco May Foment Another $1 Trillion Bailout". In another Bloomberg story "Bernanke Says U.S. May Need to Expand Bank Rescue". If that's the case, why was he so "outraged" about the AIG rescue yesterday? Maybe he has personal problems. I have a friend who is a photographer for the National Enquirer, and he sent me their front-page photo of Ben B. that they're running today...which is below. I suppose it's legal in most states to kiss animals...but once it gets past that stage...everything is pretty much illegal just about everywhere. Isn't that right, Ben?

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An interesting mix of news items today...and all about gold and silver. The first is a video from TheStreet.com which notes Ted Butler's complaints about the manipulation of the silver market. It happened in a rather flippant report by TheStreet.com's Debra Borchardt. But at least they spelled the metal's name right. You can view the report under the headline "$35 Silver in 2 Years". The link to the video is here.

Here's a piece on Chinese gold demand from The Telegraph in London. The headline reads..."Postcards from the Edge: China turns to gold in hard times"..."Beijing's gold markets are reporting record sales for the one thing that with currencies being devalued and governments taking on ever bigger debts seems sure to rise in value."...and the link is here.

The next story is from my friend James Turk over at goldmoney.com. In his latest commentary entitled "Another Good Month for Gold", he reports that gold did well in February, making record highs against the euro and British pound. Turk expects gold to make a record high against the U.S. dollar soon. The link is here.

And lastly, here is the latest commentary from silver analyst Ted Butler. In it, Butler says that based on the latest data from Friday's Commitment of Traders report..."the concentration in the short position in silver is now the greatest concentration in any U.S. commodity market, long or short, in history." The essay is entitled "The Smoking Gun: Part II" and the link is here.
We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism...but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism. -- Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)

I'm glad I don't watch CNBS, CNN or FOX...as I gave up watching television over ten years ago. I find out what's really going on, on the Internet. As far as I can see into the near future, I see the continuing destruction of the world as we know it. If you ask me what I see five years down the road...I don't see anything...nothing at all. Whatever's left of our world when it does hit bottom, I want to be watching it [as Doug Casey says] on a big screen TV somewhere far far away from North America.

So...'till Thursday....