Deutsche Bank's agreement to pay $38 million to settle class-action antitrust lawsuits charging the bank with being part of a cabal that was rigging the silver market --
http://www.gata.org/node/16847
-- seems important for at least three reasons:
1) It is a confession of sorts and confirms the rigging of the silver market by investment banks. The settlement will make it harder for apologists for the world financial system to dismiss complaints of rigging in the monetary metals markets.
2) While the cash award in the settlement with Deutsche Bank is relatively small, $38 million, it will have been worth so much more if, as the plaintiffs' lawyers believe, it makes other investment banks that have been heavily involved in silver trading more vulnerable and more inclined to settle the complaints against them.
3) Of course GATA is more interested in discovery and deposition in these lawsuits in the hope that they will produce evidence implicating central banks and governments in the market rigging. But if such evidence indeed is found, it might do no more than inflate the settlement offers from the defendants and condition their acceptance on suppressing all the evidence.
In short the settlement with Deutsche Bank is positive for the pursuit of free and transparent markets and limited and accountable government. It's negative for financial repression.
