I think the system is too corrupt now to be fixed. Last year during the debate on the original TARP bailout package the feedback was reported at about 10:1 in favour of not supporting the deal. So what happened? They threw in a whole bunch of gratuitous handouts to buy support and passed it anyway. Democracy be damned! What is the use of contacting elected representatives to react to policy decisions if the opinion and will of the people is ignored anyway? The government is bought and paid for from the top on down, and people are not being listened to. That is why so much corruption can carry on in the light of day and nothing is done about it.

It was not that long ago that we were written off as conspiracy nuts if we dared to point out that the metals were being manipulated. Now I think most thoughtful people can see it for themselves and acknowledge the manipulation as fact, but still nothing is done because there is not the will to root out the corruption and punish the offenders.

If a handful of connected elites decide they want the metals lower, then down they go, and to hell with anyone that knows or cares it is ongoing. And I guess people have figured out that no one is going to do anything about it, so they have stopped bothering to try and solve the problems. The same can be said for the fraudulent financial reporting going on at many blue chip companies, for the same kind of behaviour that landed the Enron boys in jail. The regulators are not going to step in and do anything, so its open season now for fraud.

You can have a fake market for the matals, but the people that own real bullion and hang on to it will still be okay at the end of it all. I would think that sooner or later there will be widespread corporate failures and bankruptcies. You can pretend you are solvent and lie on your reporting but the derivitive and loan losses will still be there and eventually will have to be accounted for. Real metals will still be real when all of the phoney financial rigged scams come crashing down.

cheers!

mike