The Great Silver Debate - Manipulation: Fact Or Fiction?

It sounded more like hot air to me, which one is right, both certainly think they are right, so much time was spent discrediting each other I don't think I got anything out of this.

I thought this debate was settled a while back!

It is fact that more paper is traded than exists physical metal. Supply and demand would dictate that a higher (paper) supply would equal a decreased value per unit (ounces).

The manipulation continues...

Well... once upon a time (as all good stories begin), paper silver was invented so people could trade something that mirrored the price of silver easily, quickly, and cheaply. Unfortunately for the silver market, the paper soon outnumbered the physical silver. At that point, the paper market ceased to merely mirror the price of silver but began setting the price of silver. Since then, the paper silver market has been considered AS the silver market.

Personally, I don't have a problem with paper assets if that is where people want to invest their money. My problem with paper silver is that it can be shorted without putting up any real physical bullion to settle the trades. It is all cash, all the time. Because the paper silver market is now controlling the price of physical silver, it has ceased to mirror the silver price and now controls the silver price. This is a huge case of the tail wagging the dog, as they say.

One giant fly in the ointment is that very large owners of paper silver can demand and receive silver bullion from most of the ETFs. This is a safety valve that the big boys insisted on when the ETFs were first set up. If everything turns to drek, they can bail out and take "their" silver with them. Small investors cannot do this, so would be left holding an empty bag. It is almost a certainty that at some time the Chinese will do a silver bullion raid on SLV and perhaps other silver ETFs as well. We'll see what happens then but it is unlikely to be good.