"The Not-So-Invisible Hand"

The difference between an acknowledged socialist state and the stealth socialism we have in the U.S. today is that in a socialist state, everyone expects the market to be rigged and operates accordingly. In a rigged pseudo-capitalist economy, investors are easily separated from their money because they expect the market to follow “free market principles” based on “supply and demand.”

We would add to what Brown is saying (there almost certainly is major manipulation to attempt to control the panic) that deleveraging forces have added into the mix to drive down commodities and precious metals (heck, even the Baltic shipping index) -- it's probably not all direct manipulation.