Until I’m proven wrong, it is likely that the Deutsche Bank gold/silver manipulation settlement with investors will not change the ongoing Central Bank/bullion bank manipulation of the gold and silver markets.

To begin with, the charges and settlement relate to DB’s participation the LBMA gold/silver daily price fix, from which DB removed itself in early 2014.  Deutsche Bank is de facto insolvent.  It would have collapsed under the weight of bad assets and fraudulent OTC derivatives had western Central Banks not cooperated to keep the corpse alive.  Letting DB hang for the sins of the other players was an easy decision.

It’s the Comex that is more relevant than the LBMA with regard to the highly methodical Central Bank intervention in precious metals trading.  The DB settlement isn’t going to change anything – just the names of the players that step in to replace any banks removed from the LBMA.  Why did they wait several months after the LBMA was “reformed” to announce this deal?  Because now they can say “we’ve taken measures to make sure banks like DB can’t manipulate the fix anymore.”  Truth is, all they did is make the process even more opaque and even more susceptible to rigging schemes.  Look at what happened to silver with the 84 cent price plunge at the a.m. silver fix on January 28th. This was  after the so-called reforms were put in place.

One positive note with DB’s settlement agreement:  It’s further vindicated GATA’s efforts to expose the truth about the manipulation that is endemic in the daily trading of gold and silver futures, forwards and OTC derivatives.   Eric Dubin’s (News Doctors) and Jason Burack’s  (Wall St For Main St) Welcome to Dystopia show hosted GATA’s Bill”Midas” Murphy to discuss the DB settlement and factors that are driving gold, silver and mining stock higher right now:

I hope I’m wrong on my assessment of the significance of the DB precious metals manipulation settlement. But everything that has occurred in the financial system over the past couple of decades has happened for a reason.  At the end of the day, the outcome of what appears to be an event that is beneficial to society ultimately turns into yet another device by the big banks to screw the public.