'Japanese' pair reportedly held with $134 billion in U.S. bonds
 

'Japanese' pair reportedly held with $134 billion in U.S. bonds | The Japan Times Online

Two Japanese were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Japanese Consulate General in Milan acknowledged that two people had been detained, but it was still trying to confirm with Italian authorities their identities and whether they are Japanese nationals.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds worth $500 million each, in a suitcase with a false bottom. The bonds were found June 3 during a search by Italian authorities in Chiasso, on the border with Switzerland about 50 km north of Milan.

I remember reading this on Japan Today when it came out. Did you notice how it was pulled, then resurfaced, yet not covered by the mainstream media? Sounds like the Japanese are dumping their T-bills secretly.

The USD is at 90 yen! This could be the beginning of the dollar crash.

There are 3 possiblities, the reported value of the bonds is incorrect, the bonds are fake, or the Chinesse or Japanese government are getting rid of their bonds. Japan currently holds about $630 billion and China holds about $740 billion. After Japan and China the next largest sinle holder of US debt is Brazil at ~$130 billion.

Those number lead me to believe that the reported value of the bonds is wrong combined with them being fake. I don't see any benefit to Japan in dumping US bonds in order to drive the value of the dollar down. Had the dollar not dropped so significantly against the yen the Japanese economy would be doing a lot better. Selling products for 75% of the price you were selling them for a year earlier when your production costs are the same is a good way for even a strong company to lose money. Driving the dollar down more would only hurts Japanese manufacturers more.

No, the dollar crash would have been if those Japanese actually offloaded the bonds. The dollar is in decline, yes, but if those bonds hit the market the dollar would be demolished and the US economy would be utterly destroyed. Many analysts are suggesting that the Japanese government sensed the decline of the dollar and the theory is that the government employed these two to secretly offload the new bonds from the US.

Take it as you will.

PS: Old news.

The best thing for Japan is to ditch the American dollar completely and start rebuilding the financial structure all by themselves.

This is not just Japan's movement, South Korea is also planning to ditch the US dollar as well.

The Dollar was simply a "world currency" kinda like English was the universal lanquage. Eventually, something else will fill that spot.

Hopefully the whole World will abandon the U.S. dollar -- considering its created out of thin air anyway. We need to start backing our money with something real...


Like Gold, perhaps?

Not enough Gold in the world for that, plus the US used to back with gold, then with silver.

So you guys are all saying that the world should flip the US the bird and, what, not do business? Not play ball? Not a one industrialized country can afford to not have business relations with the US at this juncture, soooo... think about that.

Plus, if I'm correct in my understanding of your propositions, you're saying that if the world community turns its back on the US and its currency, the world will be better off? Plus, if that happens, there's a good chance the US economy will utterly implode. Are you saying that such an arrogant stance is worth destroying the lives of millions upon millions of people who've done you, nor anyone else, no wrong?

Give me a break.


PS: How does a country "ditch" an entire currency? How does that even make sense? Plug your ears and go "lalalala dollar doesn't exist!"?

GTJ,

I understand what your saying, but allow me to elaborate...

Yeah, and then in 1913 the Federal Reserve Act was passed, and the Fed was instituted. They gave full control to a small network of bankers (Rockefeller, Rothschild, etc.) who started printing money out of thin air. Contrary to popular belief, the Federal Reserve is a private profiteering group.

A privately owned central banking system is dictating and puppeteering fear and inflation through the entire world.

It's the very abuse (and ignorance) of the monetary system that makes it impossible to back money in gold. The American dollar, and currency in general, has lost 95% of its purchasing value.

Audit the Fed

Federal Reserve Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Give me the right to issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who governs the country.” Meyer Amschal Rothschild, International banker

Okay, fair enough, but what's all this talk about completely "ditching" US currency? I'm having a really hard time wrapping my mind around this concept... what about the ramifications of the entire world just up and deciding the US dollar has no place in the community? I see you're in Alaska, which would mean you'd be just as effed as anyone else, which I would think would be "very effed", so for what reason are you backing such an idea?

Agreed...

My initial post was a generalization, but I never suggested "ditching" anything.

Who's to say? I think one day the world will 'abandon' the American (Central) money system as we know it.


Campaign For Liberty


HR 1207, Ron Paul's "Audit the Fed bill," and S 604, its Senate companion, will demand full transparency from the Federal Reserve for the first time in history by removing all restrictions from Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits of the Fed and mandating an audit by the end of 2010.

______

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve system have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States." - Barry Goldwater

Any legislation written by Ron Paul must be taken with a grain of salt.

The reason that the dollar is in such a decline is because America is printing out money hand over fist in a rather bizarre strategy to "stabilize" the economy. It's a backwards kind of thinking which could only occur in Washington DC.

The government is giving out billions of dollars which it doesn't have to "help" individuals and businesses who are suffering as the result of the poor economy. The government is handing out these payments, but is still taxing as usual, so the money is coming in one door, and going out through another.

A lot of people are claiming that the world's economic problems demonstrate a failure of capitalism. This couldn't be further from the truth. It is the government's micromanagement of the American economy which led to the problems we are seeing now.

The problems we have with the sub-prime mortgage mess is the fault of the government, and not the banks. It was the government which forced the banks to conform to the "fair lending practices act" which required banks to give mortgages to people with marginal (i.e. "poor") incomes and credit.

Our "elected" leaders in Congress rule according to poll numbers. The first thing a politician does in the morning is read the day's poll numbers to find out where he stands. This happens much more in election seasons. If the economy is having problems, it's likely that a senator or congressman is going to see his numbers fall. In order to to keep their numbers up, they have to do what they can to keep the economy going.

The economy has natural cycles, it rises and falls like anything else. But when the economy falls, people worry, and they sometimes express their worries at the ballot box. The government decided to keep the economy growing by reducing interest rates, which allowed businesses and individuals to borrow more money at a lower cost. This approach worked for a number of years, and the economy grew steadily.

But, this growth was artificial. First, it prevented the natural up-and-down cycles from occurring. Second, it encouraged people and businesses to get themselves into debt. In short, it was a recipe for disaster. The economy was a house of cards, and a great deal of Americans had a large percentage of their worth invested in this house. Then, the inevitable happened, and this house of cards collapsed under it's own weight.

The recent $700-odd billion dollar "stimulus" package is just another payoff from Washington, a payoff to the taxpayers to prevent them from doing what they should: throwing the politicians out of office. The sad thing is that this payoff will probably work. How much do you want to bet that US Representative Barney Frank and US Senator Christopher Dodd will be reelected? These were the 2 men in charge of the House and Senate Banking and Finance Committees when the economy collapsed.

As most of may know, until now only a fraction of the promised stimulus money has been spent. The checks will start going out in 2010. Why then? There are people who need help now, aren't there? Of course there are, but 2010 is an election year, and the politicians will use stimulus dollars as a way of lubing up the voters before turning them around and bending them over.

But this isn't all there is behind the weakness to the dollar. $784 billion is peanuts to the US economy, even though that number exceeds the GDP for the majority of the world combined. The real weakness has been caused by the Federal Reserve, as it has "added liquidity" to the banking and financial industries by doling out guarantees totaling nearly $10 trillion dollars. This, my friends, is enough to pay for an Ivy League education for every man, woman, and child living in the United States, it is enough money to give every living person on earth nearly $4000 in cash.

It is because of the Federal Reserve's "money from air" policies that the dollar has declined so far, and the government will do nothing about it.

I'm still waiting for some "change" from the Obama administration, but I don't expect any. Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is now higher than it was during the Bush administration, and continues to go up. Gitmo will not be closed at the time promised. Healthcare reform is a boondoggle, the government can't find it's behind with 2 hands and a flashlight, and somehow they think they have the expertise to regulate healthcare. We've already seen how wonderful the government is at handling our economy, if they do as good a job on healthcare we'll end up finding better medical treatment in Haiti.

Obama will campaign for Dodd 2010, and Dodd will be reelected (Barney Frank was reelected in 2008). But if the dollar continues to sink (God forbid), and is removed as the world-standard currency, Obama will not be reelected in 2012.

The Chinese and Japanese won't dare to drop their T-bills, secretly or otherwise. To do so would result in disaster for their economies. The weak dollar and strong yen is killing Japanese exports, and even making Chinese junk-goods more expensive. The British Pound and the Euro aren't doing so well against the yen either, it looks like I'm going to get a lot of good deals when I go home for the holidays this winter.

haha @ the secretly offloading stuff!

no way in hell a government would offload in that manner if they wanted to. all they would have to do is start selling on the normal regular market through intermediaries and proxies while denying doing anything,...... which is just another day in any government.

if hypothetically, china and japan were scrammbling to offload their T-bills where would they put it (after the massive losses they would have to bear)? they cant simply bring it home and lock it up, it has to be invested, and at the end of the day the only viable "safe" destination for money of that size is the US economy.

no one will put it into china, hell, china doesnt even keep her money in china which tells you alot.

they may split more and perhaps a greater percentage will go into the euro and the pound, or even the yen to artificially weaken it for a short time, but the bulk of it will still be in the US.

now thats not to say that a change on the global currency markets wont happen. something is going on right now that will set the stage for a future currency, perhaps even a global currency, or atleast a G8 currency, so if we arent using the US dollar anymore, it will simply be because everyone has switched to a G8 or G20 currency, not everyone ditching the US dollar.

The US dollar is based on "depleted uranium" in a sorta pychological way.

Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro

The Fed didn't fix the US currency.

You ask me the Fed is the Dollar's primary enemy.