by Chris Powell
GATA.org
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
How much of last week’s smash in monetary metals prices was caused by what seems to be the primary explanation for it — selling required to meet margin requirements for positions in other markets that were falling amid the worldwide virus panic?
Surely there was some of that, but suspicion also must fall on governments and central banks seeking, as they long have done in times of crisis, to bolt the exits from the financial system, which they control. This suspicion must be especially strong because of what GATA disclosed last week — the refusal of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to answer a member of Congress as to whether the commission has jurisdiction over manipulative futures trading conducted by or for the U.S. government and whether the commission is aware of such trading: