Good god... just when you had thought you had heard it all. Guess who is an investor in SLV? Why, Ted Butler's wife of course! An excerpt from Ted Butler's latest letter, courtesy of Ed Steer. "You know I've made this SLV short selling as big a deal as possible...and that I am eternally grateful to those of you who took the time to write to SLV's sponsor, BlackRock, to pressure them to help reduce the short position. I've also discussed previously the threatening letter that I received from BlackRock's attorneys back in December and how a subscriber (a European money manager) told me at the time how he felt that was good and how it would work towards reducing the short position. What I didn't tell you about was a brilliant suggestion he made at that time. His suggestion was so brilliant that I felt embarrassed that I wasn't smart enough to think of it on my own. At least, I was smart enough to instantly recognize it as being brilliant. I used his idea in my response to BlackRock's lawyers and I firmly believe it may have been the deciding factor behind the dramatic subsequent decline in the short position of SLV (and GLD)." "Regular readers should know that I am very sensitive about my work being plagiarized by others...and I am also sensitive that I not do that to anyone else. My friend wishes to remain anonymous, so I won't release his name, but I can reveal his observation. He pointed out that the short selling in shares of SLV; in addition to creating shares being issued on an unauthorized basis and resulting in shares not backed by actual metal as required by the prospectus, resulted in something else as well. Any shorted shares would also result in shares being issued in which BlackRock wouldn't collect a management fee (0.5% annually)." "So not only were the shorted shares fraudulent to SLV holders...like my wife...and manipulative to the price of silver; these same shorted shares were depriving BlackRock and its shareholders of income, which I calculated at $5 million for 2011. By cracking down on the shorted shares, BlackRock would be hitting three birds with one stone and, to boot, be doing the right thing as well. That BlackRock and its attorneys saw the wisdom of this and reacted accordingly (by moving to get the short position reduced) is what I think came about. Certainly, the timeline more than supports my conviction. As I said, this was a brilliant suggestion for which silver investors everywhere owe this anonymous money manager a nod of appreciation."
