Posted on 07/23/2006 8:19:04 AM PDT by aculeus
I would remind all (FReepers) and sundry (administration members who lurk on FR) that counterfeiting another country's currency is an act of war.
Evidently Kim-Il Jong does not value the armistice which secures his despotate from American attack.
ACT OF WAR!!!
Seems like a pretty small-time shipment to be a government operation. They could just as easily have shipped $3M or $300M.
But..but...but...he's soooo ronrey....
Is it? I'm not up enough on international law to know if this is one of the specific actions that is "an act of war".
Source please? Anyone?
I'm sure we just caught a small sample. I wonder how much of this stuff they could be passing around overseas among banks.
Three million dollars worth arrived on another ship in Newark two months later
I think it's supposed to be $300,000,000.
There is a comma after the second set of zeros.
So what do we call the continuous printing on our gumt's presses, when there is nothing to stand behind it but a (less than) worthless IOU?
Our bank held a workshop on the "supernotes" for local business because they were being passed around.
They are almost imperceptible from the real thing.
We inspect 5% of containers, so one container with 300K is the spillage of running dozens of containers into the US. Most counterfeits are used overseas, it is so bad that most foreign merchants will not take a US 100 dollar bill, and these are the ones in proximity to Us FOBs and bases.
Only a state with its resources could produce something like that. That is basically an act of war for a state to engage in such a thing.
I think it would depend on the uses of it. If the attempt is to undermine the value of the currency then yeah 300k is small time, however if the attempt is to make a profit or to use it as real currency at face value then the perps probably would rather keep the production at a fairly unnoticeable level.
Counterfeiting another nation's currency is generally accepted to be an economic act of war, and that standard was established long ago.
I would suggest that if you want the precise citation of international or U.S. law, that as the saying goes,
"Google Is Your Friend"
(just don't download their toolbars and other spyware ;)
Iran was involved in this before the last round of changes to the $100 bill, and was largely responsible for that change.
That ol' Axis of Evil keeps rearing it's ugly head!
Psst ... Lake Toplitz (and the British five-pound note).
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
OK. So why aren't we - with our far superior technology, dropping planeloads of counterfeit NK currency across the peninsula?
Seriously. Drive the NK economy even further into the ground.
Maybe it will prompt Kim to adopt the SK Won, then (frankly it would be worth it) Kim can be promised a fancy oceanfront Villa on the Sea of Japan with all the movies and babes he can handle - and the dismantling of that Marxist regime can begin.
It would beat the alternative.
Money is now a 'commodity' traded on the market.
It isn't a tradition 'IOU' as was given when you gave something to someone with a promise it would be paided in the future.
It is a 'good' that is traded in exchange for a product or service.
In and of itself, that is not a problem because it's easier to carry 'dollars' around then a truck load of chickens, or pigs or whatever you want to 'barter' with.
The problem comes when the Government decides it needs more 'bargaining power' and prints excess dollars which flood the market.
That drives the dollars value down, and in return, ends up hurting everyones bargaining power and reduces the value of their 'goods'.
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