Massive selling pressure in the paper markets, as the paper silver security with the symbol “SLV” has an almost 10% short position in the market against its shares. Long-time silver commentator Ted Butler discussed this in an article out yesterday. Ted was instrumental in blowing the whistle on gold and silver price manipulation by the big banks and believes the massive short is a long-term bullish sign for physical metal. If large investors weren’t in the market for physical silver, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to smash down the price in the paper markets.

We also continue to see gold buying by central banks and governments worldwide, including in the United States, China, and Europe. Russia has announced a plan to create an alternative gold trading platform to compete with the LBMA, which should make the pricing of precious metals more competitive and less manipulated.

Zimbabwe took some steps recently to reintroduce gold backing into their financial system. Within a month, their currency has strengthened significantly, evidenced by a halving of the difference between the official exchange rate vs. that of the underground market for local currency.