Conspiracy theories have a long and exciting history. Throughout history we have seen conspiracies to take over land, acquire power, wealth and influence by many. We also have theories about whether many of the events back in time are in fact as history says. We often call this conspiracy theories.
There is actually an anecdote about the term “conspiracy theory”. It is only in recent decades that the term has been given the somewhat derogatory term it has today. It is therefore only fitting that there is even a conspiracy theory about the origin of the term “conspiracy theory”. The conspiracy theory claims that the CIA invented this term in 1967. They did this to disqualify anyone who questioned the official version of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and anyone who doubted that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. The extreme version of the theory is that they invented the whole concept of “conspiracy theory”, while the more moderate version is that the CIA made propaganda that gave negative associations to the term.
My favorite conspiracy theory is about director Stanley Kubrick and Moon Landing. The theory is that the film “The Shining” is the director’s admission that he actually directed the moon landing in 1969, and that the United States never went to the moon. (Or at least did not go to the moon in 1969). Since Kubrick had made “2001 a Space Odyssey” in 1968, he was the perfect candidate for the job. The United States could not see itself beaten by the Soviet Union in the space race under any circumstances. The Shining is therefore according to conspiracy theorists, full of hints that Kubrick was the director behind the moon landing. A documentary has even been made about this. «Room 237», which addresses this and several conspiracy theories about the film.
The crown proof most people use is that the character Danny is wearing a sweater with the motif “Apollo 11” on it.
If this conspiracy theory had been true, I would have found it very amusing. I am therefore sad to say that I have seen several documentaries, analyses, and behind-the-scenes footage that unfortunately disprove this theory. Kubrick always used strong symbolism in his films and they can be interpreted in several ways according to what you are looking for. In The Shining it was the costume designer for the film who found the sweater with Apollo 11 as the motif for the character Danny. The costume designer said that she chose the sweater because it looked like it was homemade, and that the family in the film did not have a lot of money. Kubrick had no influence on this other than approving the choice she made.
There are also conspiracy theories that are supported by traditional media. Everything that had to do with suspecting the Wuhan lab was behind the virus was off limits for over a year. The media said it was a conspiracy theory. You would get suspended off Youtube if you got to close with your accusations. Now, the media have suddenly turned and say the lab could have been behind the leaked virus. The bat (and the other explanations) the media gave instead can be seen as a conspiracy theory from them. The media tried to lump everyone who saw the lab leak as a probable explanation together with the flat earthers.
The reason I am giving all these examples is just to encourage you to be more open. Conspiracy theories do not have to be invented by people in their basement with a tin foil hat over their heads. As an investor you will have to look past the headlines, or go beyond what the crowd is doing if you want outsized returns. It is important to be critical of everything you see and read.
Precious Metals
All this preamble for saying that I am open to the possibility that the gold and silver paper markets are manipulated. (What I do not want to speculate on is how far up this conspiracy goes).
What I am comfortable in saying is that paper short sellers are able to manipulate the paper price. They usually sell down hard during the low activity hours of the day when there are few buyers are around. The amount of paper contracts they are selling are several times the real volume exchanged in a year of the physical metal. One would expect higher volumes in a futures market, but I wonder if this was the intention when they started selling the futures contracts.
We experienced a massive demand for silver this Winter/Spring with the Silversqueeze. We saw massive amounts of people who took physical delivery. There were shortages at dealers, premiums were high, but the paper price was “tamped down” because of massive paper selling.
It has been very interesting to observe this. I have never been exposed to a market where the product is sold out, and the price is going down. This is not what I have learned about supply and demand in Economics class. For me this smells like bad fish.
I am following a lot of people for more information on the subject:
Sprott Money with Eric Sprott and Craig @TFMetals Hemke
GoldSilver with Michael Maloney @mike_maloney and Jeff Clark @TheGoldAdvisor
Arcadia Economics and Chris Marcus @ArcadiaEconomic
@natefishpa behind renaissancemen.org
These are just at the top of my head, and there are several others to check out. Most of these have been called tin foil hat conspiracy theorists. In this case, I think it is more a badge of honour than an insult. I can be wrong about this, but it does not hurt to seek out independent information. Both that support, and undermines your hypothesis.
