“The conspiracy and scheme was enormously successful, netting the defendants substantial illegal profits” in the billions of dollars … JPMorgan and HSBC together “controlled over 85 percent the commercial net short positions” … William D. Cohan writes in the New York Times:
As Americans know all too well by this point, commodity prices — for corn, wheat, soybeans, crude oil, gold and even farmland — have been going through the roof for what seems like forever. There are many causes, primarily supply and demand pressures driven by fears about the unrest in the Middle East, the rise of consumerism in China and India, and the Fed’s $600 billion campaign to increase the money supply.
Nonetheless, how to explain the price of silver? In the past six months, the value of the precious metal has increased nearly 80 percent, to more than $34 an ounce from around $19 an ounce.


