I do not know how to make my point any more clear... I have been very consistent that I blame the corrupt COMEX and the inept regulators for the issues that have undermined the free trading in the precious metals pits. I think there are many crooks at work that have been happy to cash in a profit while they enable what I believe amounts to illegal trading, whomever it may be that is behind the huge short position.

One can justify this however they wish, but it is not legitimate hedging. If I were in charge of Chinese economic policy and saw that the US dollar foreign reserves accumulated by my country were being eroded by misguided and corrupt decisions within the US, I would seek to secure bullion however I could obtain it as an opportunity to preserve some of the lost value. I do not issue judgement on the morality of this deception, but I am under no illusion that it may be accurately described as hedging.

There are many nations in the west that have made serious mistakes and the leadership lacks the courage to fix these problems. The easy decision is to try and paper over the problems and delay the consequences. Meanwhile the door has been left wide open for high level crooks to scam the system while so much money is being thrown around in a crisis mentality. I think the Chinese have been painted into a corner that has left them few options to participate, and IF indeed there is a plan to short the paper and accumulate the metals then turnabout is fair play.

There is corruption aplenty to go around in China as well. What is more relevant to this discussion is that if the COMEX operated a fair market and within the rule of laws pertaining to price fixing, no such shorting scam would be able to succeed. I place the blame squarely on the CFTC for this one.

cheers!

mike