Posted on 12/07/2010 6:19:29 AM PST by george76
A printing problem with the new high-tech $100 bills has forced government printers to shut down production - and to quarantine more than one billion of the notes. The flawed notes represent more than ten per cent of the U.S. currently on the entire planet.
They are being stored in giant vaults at Fort Worth in Texas and in Washington, DC, as the Federal Reserve desperately tries to resolve the problem.
Meanwhile printers have begun reprinting the old $100 notes - without the high-tech security features and still bearing the signature of George W Bush's treasury secretary, Hank Paulson - in order to prevent a cash flow crisis.
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, authorities are scrambling to do everything they can to keep U.S. cash flowing.
'There is something drastically wrong here,' one source told CNBC. 'The frustration level is off the charts.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The $100bn blunder: Fed forced to 'quarantine' one billion $100 bills after printing error makes them worthless
“Put the government in charge of something, and watch it fall apart.”
-RWR
Worthless? Printing errors make them even more valuable. Look for a select few of these misprints to make it into the collector market.
I love the irony.
First off, I believe this was intentional. What better way to devalue our currency than to print it and do it wrong.
Second, I believe these screwy bills will find their way into circulation.
If a PFC can get national secrets from an unattended PC, then someone will get their hands on some or all of these quarantined bills.
I do not put anything past this administration anymore. EVERYTHING is done for a reason.
“...I believe this was intentional.”
You beat me to it.
I was thinking they'd probably sell them to Saudi Arabia at pennies on the dollar.
I find it hard to believe there is only $10 billion in US currency in circulation on this planet.
One hundred billion dollars? I thought the Fed wasn’t printing money at this time. And just how many managers were on staff during this print-run? Where was the quality control? Good thing the government doesn’t get to fire people or someone in that office might be looking for work. I know if I made a one hundred billion dollar error where I work I would be out on the street.
If there was a printing error, why store the bills instead of shredding them? Are the bills going to suddenly ‘get better’ with age?
They could have given it to me! I’m not above using scratch and dent merchandise. $100s with an error wouldn’t have bothered me a bit!
All of you silly gold bugs who claim that printing money is easy!!
Learn thy multiplication tables...
They are mixed in with the good bills. Another article said it would take 30 years to sort them out manually. They have developed a machine to spot the bad bills. Likely an optical scanner system. Probably they will screw that up also.
And these stupid jack asses are going to run health care????
Yeah......riiiiighhht.
Speaking of failed states, I remember being in Somalia, back before the wheels came off that country in the mid-80s. The Somalis had their currency printed by the Italians, because they did not have the technology. Of course, the Italian printers demanded to be paid in hard currency. After all, they could have all the Somali Shillings they wanted just by letting the presses run.
Well, the central government did not have enough money to pay the printers, so you had the unique experience of having hyper-inflation with no actual cash to pay for anything. People were writing checks and endorsing and re-endorsing them on the back as a substitute for cash. I had some checks written to CASH that had twenty names on the back. each crossed out with a new name underneath.
Eventually, the central government was promised an infusion of money from the United Nations, but it would not be arriving until the next week. It was at that point the Somali Finance Minister, who was in charge of long-term economic planning for the country, uttered the immortal words, "If we can just make it through next Tuesday, we'll be all right..."
I suspect we will hear similar words from Tim Geithner any day now...
After going to the link, I understand they printed 1 billion dollars in crappy $100 dollar bills. Not 1 billion $100 dollar bills.
And if it is only 1 biilion dollars of $100 dollar bills...why would it take 20 years to manually count? Give me the job...I’ll get it done in a couple of weeks with a small crew.
It’s only money...................
Math was not your major, eh?...............
” If there was a printing error, why store the bills instead of shredding them? Are the bills going to suddenly ‘get better’ with age? “
That’s my question.. Unless those bills are actually issued, they’re not ‘currency’ - they’re just ‘scrap paper’, so why were they not just quietly destroyed and re-printed???
I can see where there might be an issue with the ‘new’ designs being so horribly complicated that they can’t be efficiently produced, but I guess I’m just not ‘nuanced’ enough to see where this constitutes a ‘currency crisis’...
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