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Ed Steer: In tribute to Ted Butler
By Ed Steer
Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Digest
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
I still haven't really come to grips with the fact that Ted Butler is gone, even though I knew it had been coming since early March but kept quiet about it until I started getting questions from his subscribers about a month ago when the second notification went up on his website that he was ceasing publication of his column.
No words below will do justice to him, or his legacy.
I first ran across his work on Gold-eagle.com in 2001 when he posted in the public domain -- and I knew right away that he was the man who had it down cold as to why silver (and gold) were trading at the prices they were.
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I was fairly new to the precious metals space, having been in it only about four years, and so it took a while before I got up the nerve to contact him, as I considered everyone to be an expert at the time -- except for me. But once I did, my real education commenced -- and even after almost 20 years he was still the master and I the pupil.
Virtually everything the precious metal world knows about silver and gold came through him first.
His quest began around 1986 when a client of his asked him why the price of silver was so darn low, considering that more was being used than produced. Once Ted started down that rabbit hole, it became an obsession -- and one that continued to his final days.
Ted was the rare precious metals commentator on the Internet with commodity-trading experience, 25 years' worth, first at Drexel Burnham Lambert and then with Merrill. He was an authority on futures, options, swaps, spreads, precious metals leasing -- the lot -- as that was his livelihood. Nobody held a candle to him.
As the years went by I was in awe of his steel-trap mind and photographic memory. Never did I catch Ted out on anything. Every word he has written on his internet site and in the public domain stands the test of time.
Because of his genius thinking in this area, I quickly realized that I would have to interact with him differently than with most other people -- the way I had learned to interact with genius minds when I had to deal with gifted musicians and performers as they turned up as guest soloists during my 11 years as a board member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Ted was very opinionated, bordering on irascible, and because of the thousands of times we spoke, I never quite knew what version of Ted I was going to get when he picked up the phone.
He never called me, as he was the master and I the student. That unsaid relationship was firmly established at the beginning -- and we both knew the rules, even though they were never spoken.
There are times when one has to set one's ego aside to advance in life, and for me, this was one of them.
Ted had a low opinion of everyone who wrote about the precious metals on the Internet, and for good reason -- even me at times. I quickly learned to be careful of not only what I said but how I said it, or I'd get an earful. But after almost 20 years, with some bumpy patches along the way, he had me whipped into shape pretty good.
But my education by the master was only a tiny part of the legacy he has left behind. His loyal subscribers, along with his rabid following in the public domain, are testament to his grasp of the price-management scheme -- and how it has kept metals prices suppressed in the Comex futures market.
His legacy stretched far beyond that: in speaking truth to power. Over the last 15 years or so he had gone after the small segment of the globalist power elite in the United States that facilitates the price suppression -- including the CME Group, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and even the Justice Department. He had them stone cold -- and they know it.
Though he's gone, his presence and legacy still lurk in the hallways and boardrooms of these once-hallowed institutions.
But something Susan B. Anthony said may reflect the essence of the man:
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
Men, being the creatures that we are, almost never give out sincere compliments to other men. It's an issue that I've managed to overcome as the years have rolled by -- and was thankful for that on several occasions when I told Ted how grateful I was -- and the precious metals world should be thankful for all he had done and still was doing.
As his good friend of many decades, Carl Loeb, pointed out, along with many others in the last few days: "It's a tragedy that he of all people did not live to see the inevitable victory that he predicted -- and bask in the achievement of his decades of research."
Yes, it is all of that. But he loved what he did -- and knew that it mattered -- so how could anyone ask for more out of life?
Rest in peace, my dear friend. I'm sorry that I never had the chance to say goodbye.
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