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Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge
KentuckyJ
Posts: 1,871 ✭✭✭
Interesting. This happened a few days ago and we're not hearing much about it.
Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge
[snip]
"On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if the Treasury “has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn’t want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years.” Adds Denninger: “Let’s hope we get those answers, and this isn’t one of those ‘funny things’ that just disappears into the night.”
This is still a story with far more questions than answers. It’s odd, though, that it’s not garnering more media attention. Interest is likely to grow. The last thing Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke need right now is tens of billions more of U.S. bonds -- or even high-quality fake ones -- suddenly popping up around the globe."
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roadrunner
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
They were variations on the standard Nigerian scheme. A party needed some help in cashing them, and offered the helper 20% of the face value in exchange for some front money to help with expenses. The helper gets the fake bonds, and the party of the first part splits with the front money.
No conspiracy here, folks! Move along! Move along!!
Wikipedia says bearer bonds issued by US have all matured and no longer valid. So these had to be fake then, no?
<< <i>Wiki of bearer bond
Wikipedia says bearer bonds issued by US have all matured and no longer valid. So these had to be fake then, no? >>
They're still valid.. They just stopped paying interest....
<< <i>In the United States all the bearer bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury have matured. They no longer pay interest to the holders. As of May 2009, the approximate amount outstanding is $100 million.[2] >>
Mafia blamed for $134bn fake Treasury bills
[snip]
"Whether the men are really Japanese, as their passports declare, is unclear but Italian and US secret services working together soon concluded that the bills and accompanying bank documents were most probably counterfeit, the latest handiwork of the Italian Mafia."
::: Breathing a big sigh of relief :::
CNBC just confirmed they are fakes. It was briefly noted it might not be a good thing to have high quality fake U.S. Bonds floating around but, not to worry, all will be well. End of story. Move along. Nothing to see here, other than yet another conspiracy theory
Does anyone know what a $500,000,000 bearer bond is supposed to look like, so how in the world would a counterfeiter get his hand on an authentic one in order to duplicate it?
Nobody thinks that Japan or China are trying to unload their US paper before it is entirely trashed? Uh, really?
I knew it would happen.
When it first came out, it was confirmed that they were fakes, based on an internet picture of the bonds on the internet.
Then a copy was faxed to US officials, who then said the bonds were fake.
Supposedly, they had some series date on them, but also had a picture of the space shuttle. They say the two were not supposed to be found together in that combination so was a fake.
Supposedly in the past, this type of fake bond was found to have come out of North Korea. So they are suspect again.... but one has to wonder, if they made some error on the bonds in the past, why they would make more with the same mistake.....
There still does not seem to be much info on the individuals who were carrying them. No nationality seems to be apparent...
Those coupons must be redeemable every 6 months. Heh, must be nice!
I knew it would happen.
While known for being sensationalistic with questionable accuracy, I'd probably still believe this guy's account before the govt's of Italy, USA, Japan, and certainly not CNBC. At least it's more entertaining.
Supposedly these are pics of the bonds. My computer graphics are too dark to read anything. Can anyone else see what dates these are, and what other features are on them?
roadrunner
Looks like some of the Philippine work I mentioned earlier.
Rant over.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Could it be because of the actions of the financial elite that got our system to where it is today via a series of moves that have taken decades to accomplish? This was just by luck? Even FDR said that all major financial moves were always intended. The moves of the past 20 years by the financial elite especially speaks to the above.
From the creation of the FED, to juiced govt stats, eliminating M3, understating M1 relative to M0, going pure fiat, leveraging up the system with otc derivatives, dark pools, hedge funds, manipulated ETF's, marked to myth accounting, regulators turning a blind eye even when evidence is placed under their noses, revolving doors between congress, banks, lobbyists and regulatory bodies, removing laws that once protected our banks from doing dumb stuff, central bank's double counting of their gold and selling it off over the past decade under the guise of a "non-performing" asset (lol), etc. The list is much longer but you get the drift. At this point, I'd rather assume the worst than give any benefit of a doubt to words being spoken by those in power or in prime media. Sorry, they have to earn back trust at this point. It will take a long, long time.
Schoon's article of today talks about these very same points........
Schoon on the big picture
roadrunner
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
The nation has changed drastically and one cannot measure quality by gross earnings, the number of one's possessions, or being connected 24/7 via cell phones, Ipods, Twitters, and the internet. I think we can start safely saying that our lives WERE generally better as the current financial plays out over years.
But I'm a glass "half-full" type of guy......that is, the glass is still (at least) half-full of otc derivatives.
roadrunner
It looks like Schoon has no love for Goldman Sachs
There are many reasons why some (most) households need 2 breadwinners, but that is probably a discussion for another time.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear