aaaah, the smell of denial.
And here I was, thinking this downtrend might be over already... but there you are, guys, coming up with all kinds of explanations why "price is kept down artificially".
Funny, because there's much less conspiracy around when the price is going up, huh?
Jim Cramer admits to doing it in his famous video clip.
Buy up all the bids, then crank the price down. Maybe call a friend and release a negative press release or two. He implies other hedge fund managers do it too, because, well it's incredibly profitable, doesn't take much money and they don't get caught.
Not saying it doesn't happen on the way up, but everyone's making money on the way up.
Edit:
http://youtu.be/GOS8QgAQO-k