Posted on 06/21/2009 12:26:01 PM PDT by I Hate Obama
lmfao.. i told my mum that the other day. “problem exists between keyboard and chair”
She thought it was funny :)
I just searched your title and got seven different posts in the last eleven days ("by relevance").
I’ve heard it called PICNIC -
problem in chair not in computer.
:-)
No I’m just saying that my computer doesn’t refresh the pages for some reason. It’s stuck on like 3 days ago. Think what you want.
Post 5:
"...And interestingly, from Reuters, is this: “U.S. TIC data show that during the 12 months ending January 2007, Japanese investors bought just $18.2 billion in Treasury coupons, or approximately $1.5 billion a month, a sharp contrast from the 12 months ending January 2005 when Japanese investors purchased $134.5 billion of U.S. government debt, McCarthy noted.”
Something stinks, so keep your eye on this one. The amount involved is MASSIVE, the city where they were seized is a financial gateway to Switzerland, and you’d have to have giant balls to try and fake out the Swiss with counterfeits in this way.Not that you could.
Pressure is mounting in Congress for an (unprecedented) audit of the Federal Reserve. Our government obviously knows about this catch by the Italians…but it seems they, and our media, don’t want you to."
So we have:
$134.5 bil - JAN 2005- Period ending: Japanese had invested in U.S. Gov’t debt.
Then we have these coincidences:
$134.5 bil - MAR 2009 – WSJ reports TARP money left over.
$134.5 bil - JUN 2009 – 2 Japanese detained with U.S. bonds in Italy.
It’s been all over this site and a handful of blogs, although it is being completely ignored by most MSM (except for a handful of conflicting stories on Bloomberg & IIRC Reuters). There is a lot of wierdness about this story - or at the least about how it’s being handled by the media.
1. In Italy, it is illegal to take assets over a certain amount over the border without declaring (they put a 40% tax on them), and it is illegal eveywhere to counterfeit with most countries cooperating very closely on the matter (except the likes of North Korea and Cuba that have government-sponsored counterfeiting operations). The Italian police should by rights be bragging about busting the largest counterfeiting operation in world history or of the $50B windfall this fine will bring. Instead they’ve been silent.
2. Italy caught these guys a couple of weeks ago, and nobody in the media or Italian gov’t has been able to confirm if they are still in custody (what one would expect with counterfeiters) or released (what one would expect with undeclared authentic bonds).
3. The two had $134.5B in supposed US Treasury bearer bonds (that is, bonds issues in physical paper with mail-in coupons) which Italian authorities said looked extremely realistic (therefore requiring high-cost printing equipment available primarily to governments), but the US Treasury claims that there are IIRC about only $5B in bearer bonds outstanding, since they have been issuing purely electronic bonds since the 1980s.
4. The bonds were in $500M denomination available only to governments (ignore for a second the mathematical impossibility of them being authentic bearer bonds AND the US Treasury’s claim of only $5B outstanding) - but no government would carry them around in such unsecured condition, and no private citizen could use counterfeits in such ridiculously large denomination without arousing suspicion.
5. The Secret Service is responsible for investigating counterfeiting of US currency and gov’t bonds, but has not confirmed that they are investigating this situation.
6. The Treasury made a comment that based on pictures they saw on the internet they look to be fakes - but surely with $135B worth, they must be interested in getting a faster & closer look than just pictures on the internet.
7. The suspects are alleged to have been traveling under Japanese passports, but there is no confirmation from Japan or its embassy in Italy about their status or whereabouts.
Something smells rotten in Denmark. When I first heard of it, I though it was North Korean counterfeiters smuggling them. Then I thought maybe Mafia (real-life Sicilian Cosa Nostra men) or Japanese mobster counterfeitters. But their is some government-level problems here too - at the least, that 3 sets of government agencies (Italian, Japanese, US) are not being as open as they could be about something so mysterious. Perhaps because there is some government-level corruption being investigated somewhere, but if you & I know about this story, surely the perps are aware of it too.
Or perhaps it’s something much much bigger.
Great. More fodder for the conspiracy, um, “folks” amongst us. Yippee!
“No I’m just saying that my computer doesn’t refresh the pages for some reason. It’s stuck on like 3 days ago. “
No it’s not. Your post and last reply are dated today, just a few minutes ago.
I have to refresh it 50 times in order for it to do that though. Even my yahoo page won’t refresh itself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.