I don't always agree with Bix Weir but I have been pondering why JPMorgan is going all out to add more silver shorts when they can't even start to cover what they have without driving silver to $100. Maybe the plan is what Bix outlines below:

Are The Silver Manipulators Playing The "Too Big To Fail" Card?

Last Friday the CFTC released their monthly Bank Participation Report (BPR) which revealed a startling statistic. After 3 months of desperately trying to cover their gigantic short position the US Banks that control the price of silver decided to go back to their reckless shorting routine...BY A HUGE AMOUNT! Here's the numbers and the link to the CFTC BPR postings:

http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/BankParticipationReports/index.htm

11/2/10 = 30,760

12/7/10 = 26,332

1/4/11 = 22,658

2/1/11 = 19,706

Over the last 3 months it really looked like they were trying to close out their gigantic short position before the Position Limit Rule goes into effect on March 28, 2011. That was until the latest BPR was posted. Just look at the increase in the US Bank silver short position...

3/1/11 = 25,586

IT GREW BY 5,880 CONTRACTS OR CLOSE TO 30M OUNCES!

That is a STUNNING amount of new shorts added during the month of February when the price of silver actually managed to RISE 25%. It is important to understand that IF these new shorts were not placed on COMEX silver then THE PRICE WOULD HAVE EXPLODED TO OVER $50 OR EVEN $100 PER OUNCE!

This was clearly a short designed to keep a lid on the price of silver.

Here's why I think this happened:

- The CFTC is FINALLY getting serious about enforcing the commodity laws and the US Banks know it.

- Although the US Banks tried to close out their 150M ounce short position THEY COULD NOT DO IT IN TIME.

- Once they saw that they couldn't sucker any more sellers they had to crank up their shorts to stop the price of silver from going parabolic.

- Now they are TRAPPED with NO WAY to cover their short position before the 28th DEADLINE so...

THEY HAVE DECIDED ON A "SCORCHED EARTH" SILVER SHORTING STRATEGY BY INCREASING THE SIZE OF THEIR SHORT SO MUCH THAT THEY BECOME...TOO BIG TO FAIL IN THE SILVER MARKET!

It is a way to protect themselves from the inevitable default in the COMEX silver market. Clearly a skyrocketing silver price would destroy the US Bank short position. "Too Big To Fail" will have to come into play in both the implementation of position limits as well as potentially deflecting the BLAME onto the CFTC and Dodd-Frank Law for TOO MUCH REGULATION.

They could even try to BLAME the destruction of the global monetary system on those "greedy silver bugs" who only care about themselves!

These US Banks know the silver manipulation game is over as the rest of the investment world has finally come to the understanding that there IS manipulation in the silver markets. On Wall Street when there is blood in the water you can bet the sharks will circle and a feeding frenzy will soon begin.

Although I've never been a fan of this saying we're about to witness why...

"GREED IS GOOD!"

I think the US Bank COMEX short will continue to grow such that they will have such a large and dangerous short position in silver that they will either beg for a "Get Out of Jail Free" card or TAKE THE ENTIRE SYSTEM DOWN WITH THEM.