By the time I made it to Spokane from Dallas last night, a LONG trip door to door, the price of gold was under enormous pressure … falling some $25. The reason for the price of gold to suddenly collapse doesn’t always have to be Gold Cartel related, although it is so often the case. But, again, what is so aggravating are the clues that lead to that conclusion. As we have witnessed so often, the shares are often battered prior to a Gold Cartel mauling. It is like a tip-off to other gold shorts what is coming for bullion, so that they join in on the trade, which bolsters the efforts of the cabal forces. Yesterday was a perfect example, as the shares were just butchered. Today … voila, gold is bombed.

By the way, this is very similar what Andrew Maguire explained to the CFTC prior to our testimony on his behalf at the CFTC hearing on March 25, 2010 … that JP Morgan has a way of signaling to traders of an imminent price drubbing.

On a similar note, and following up on James Mc’s outstanding work, the PM Fix has now been lower than the AM Fix the past 20 out of 24 days. AM Fix: $1629. PM Fix: $1620.

What the heck? The gold open interest fell 4,440 contracts to 433,299, but the silver open interest went up 2084 contracts to 105,441. Yesterday Dave from Denver commented that silver was trading a bit differently … that major buyers were waiting in the wings to buy the dip. The increase in open interest suggests this WAS the case.

What’s going on? Same drill … BLACK IS WHITE AND WHITE IS BLACK. The reasons for gold rising to the $1900 level in the first place are accelerating, yet the price has been buried … which suggests something is very wrong and The Gold Cartel and various governments are going into action ahead of time, wanting gold off the radar screen as a GO TO investment play. Bill H lays it out perfectly:

There are no coincidences!

To all; two days ago Germany had a failed Bund auction, they had planned to sell 5 Billion Euro's worth and only received 4.15 Billion in bids. THIS is what would have already been happening here in the U.S. if not for the Fed stepping up and buying Treasury issues with freshly printed Dollars. THIS is an illustration of the plain and simple fact that "money is finite" if it is not printed. In other words, governments (including the U.S.) do no have an endless supply of capital that they can rely on. Now, an easy question, if Germany just had a failed auction for $5 Billion then how does Greece get its $8 Billion to make payments next month? ...And maybe a more important question, where does the $440 Billion EFSF (that may be leveraged to $2 Trillion) come from?

To this point no one has even questioned this, they only talk about whether the politicians will pass "the plan". Similar to "I'd like to live in a $10 Million mansion and am in the process of making a plan to make a plan on buying it with 0 down and $10 Million borrowed, I'll worry about the financing later". Of course I do not have a printing press and various governments do (especially the U.S.) so they will continue trying to extend the game by monetizing. Monetizing is now and has been for quite some time the ONLY game in town. Only now is it becoming so obvious for the public to see. Do they understand this yet? I don't know but very soon the lightbulbs will be clicking on across the globe!

As for the recent action in Gold, all I can say is that something REALLY big and REALLY bad must be going on behind the scenes. For Gold to be pushed down as it has recently in the face of record high global physical demand, someone is hiding something. I will not even even go into explaining the "how" of manipulation because it is well documented, it is the "why" that is important. You all know the big picture "why" ...Dollar good/Gold bad, but the "why" from a short short term standpoint is what I am talking about here. THEY MUST hit Gold in the very short term EVERY TIME another fire behind the scenes pops up. They absolutely have to otherwise it becomes an overnight and unstoppable wildfire!

I just mentioned the failed German auction and we know about the Fed's monetizing but here is a new twist. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/bofa-said-to-split-regulators-over-moving-merrill-derivatives-to-bank-unit.html Bank of America is moving $53 Trillion of Merrill Lynch's derivative book onto IT'S own core books. A few minor questions, first, why now? Second, are these going onto the mother ship's books because they are "winners"? ...And what if they are losers? Now the FDIC which is ultimately U.S. taxpayer backed is on the hook if they are losers? If they are losers then who is on the other side of the trade? Goldman Sachs? There are a ton more questions to ask but you get my jist, SOMETHING STINKS!

* * * *

As I mentioned before regarding Gold being artificially pushed down, something is smoldering in the background. Now a movement of a paltry $53 Trillion (nearly equal to 1 year's global GDP) by the largest bank in the U.S.? Coincidence? In today's fraudulent world of finance...THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES! Regards, Bill H.

Funny, just heard one of The Muppets on CNBC exclaim how terrible gold was doing today when this was just the kind of day when it ought to be screaming higher … and that this shows it is no safe haven. Well, thank you sir for making GATA’s case. How can these so-called experts be so naïve? Oops, I forgot, they are flat-earthers.

Simplistically, the problem is there are NO SOLUTIONS to the growing fiscal problems in Europe and the US without a substantial decrease in the standard of living. This has been a repeated comment in this column for about five years now, including the predication riots are coming. The bottom line is the general public has been living beyond their means without realizing it … thanks to incredible debt all the way around. Meanwhile, the politicians, outside of Congressman Ron Paul, won’t deal with what has to be done because they know they will not be re-elected. Thus, the charade about making things better goes on and on … and will continue that way until markets and economies blow up.

Down, down, down it is, both in Europe and the US…

10:47 Fitch Ratings says the outlook for the five largest banks in Italy is negative; prospects have deteriorated significantly
Citing the uncertainty over the resolution of the current euro zone crisis, Fitch says the large Italian banks are significantly affected given the market's focus on Italy, and Fitch does not expect a quick resolution of the underlying complex problems

* Says that key to a change of the outlook to stable would be a significant improvement in operating profitability
Fitch downgraded 3 of the 5 major Italian banks' long-term IDRs on 11-Oct and placed one bank on Rating Watch Negative following the downgrade of the Italian sovereign rating to A+/Negative. Following these rating actions, the Long-term IDRs of all 5 major Italian banks have a Negative Outlook or are on Rating Watch Negative - SA London

10:43 German ruling coalition sources say EU summit will not reach a decision on EFSF leveraging -- Reuters, citing a source
* Sources say the EU summit will proceed on Sunday (23-Oct)
note the headline would support the earlier headline citing senior EU sources as saying they are unaware of any plan to postpone Sunday's summit
* €/$ 1.3714