37 ár síðan mannskepnan hætti sér lengra en 500 km. frá yfirborði jarðar

Fertugsafmæli tunglævintýris hollywood og bandar. fjárplógsmaskínunnar fer heldur hljótt og það er vegna þess að ruslveitur og aðrir leppar maskínunnar hafa tapað sínum áhrifum og ekki getað til lengdar logið vitleysuna áfram. Það er nefnilega með öllu ómögulegt að sanna og halda til streitu lygamálum. Þau falla ávallt á endanum og geta ekki annað. Það hefur sést endalaust í gegnum sögu mannsins og alls konar vitleysu sem hefur verið borin á borð fyrir hann, veraldleg sem trúarleg. Raunar hefur blind trú á himneska vitleysu löngum jafnframt tryggt að menn hafa trúað hvers konar dellu frá jarðneskum yfirvöldum (sem höfðu jú valdið og trúverðugleikann frá guði sjálfum og voru því óskeikulir rétt eins og hann). Þannig að það eimir enn illa eftir af þessum blinda átrúnaði á vitleysu og lygar og hann hefur svo sem birst í seinni tíð í blindri trú á fjármálaleg töfralyf sem raðlygarar seldu en gerðu bara illt verra og sjúklingurinn er núna bæði blankur og dauðvona. Amen og kúmen.

Majority of Eastern Germans feel life better under Communism

Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Young people and the better off are among those rebuffing criticism of East Germany as an "illegitimate state." In a new poll, more than half of former eastern Germans defend the GDR.

The life of Birger, a native of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in northeastern Germany, could read as an all-German success story. The Berlin Wall came down when he was 10. After graduating from high school, he studied economics and business administration in Hamburg, lived in India and South Africa, and eventually got a job with a company in the western German city of Duisburg. Today Birger, 30, is planning a sailing trip in the Mediterranean. He isn't using his real name for this story, because he doesn't want it to be associated with the former East Germany, which he sees as "a label with negative connotations."

And yet Birger is sitting in a Hamburg cafe, defending the former communist country. "Most East German citizens had a nice life," he says. "I certainly don't think that it's better here." By "here," he means reunified Germany, which he subjects to questionable comparisons. "In the past there was the Stasi, and today (German Interior Minister Wolfgang) Schäuble -- or the GEZ (the fee collection center of Germany's public broadcasting institutions) -- are collecting information about us." In Birger's opinion, there is no fundamental difference between dictatorship and freedom. "The people who live on the poverty line today also lack the freedom to travel."

Birger is by no means an uneducated young man. He is aware of the spying and repression that went on in the former East Germany, and, as he says, it was "not a good thing that people couldn't leave the country and many were oppressed." He is no fan of what he characterizes as contemptible nostalgia for the former East Germany. "I haven't erected a shrine to Spreewald pickles in my house," he says, referring to a snack that was part of a the East German identity. Nevertheless, he is quick to argue with those who would criticize the place his parents called home: "You can't say that the GDR was an illegitimate state, and that everything is fine today."

As an apologist for the former East German dictatorship, the young Mecklenburg native shares a majority view of people from eastern Germany. Today, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there," say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."

These poll results, released last Friday in Berlin, reveal that glorification of the former East Germany has reached the center of society. Today, it is no longer merely the eternally nostalgic who mourn the loss of the GDR. "A new form of Ostalgie (nostalgia for the former GDR) has taken shape," says historian Stefan Wolle. "The yearning for the ideal world of the dictatorship goes well beyond former government officials." Even young people who had almost no experiences with the GDR are idealizing it today. "The value of their own history is at stake," says Wolle.

People are whitewashing the dictatorship, as if reproaching the state meant calling their own past into question. "Many eastern Germans perceive all criticism of the system as a personal attack," says political scientist Klaus Schroeder, 59, director of an institute at Berlin's Free University that studies the former communist state. He warns against efforts to downplay the SED dictatorship by young people whose knowledge about the GDR is derived mainly from family conversations, and not as much from what they have learned in school. "Not even half of young people in eastern Germany describe the GDR as a dictatorship, and a majority believe the Stasi was a normal intelligence service," Schroeder concluded in a 2008 study of school students. "These young people cannot, and in fact have no desire to, recognize the dark sides of the GDR."

"Driven Out of Paradise"

Schroeder has made enemies with statements like these. He received more than 4,000 letters, some of them furious, in reaction to reporting on his study. The 30-year-old Birger also sent an e-mail to Schroeder. The political scientist has now compiled a selection of typical letters to document the climate of opinion in which the GDR and unified Germany are discussed in eastern Germany. Some of the material gives a shocking insight into the thoughts of disappointed and angry citizens. "From today's perspective, I believe that we were driven out of paradise when the Wall came down," one person writes, and a 38-year-old man "thanks God" that he was able to experience living in the GDR, noting that it wasn't until after German reunification that he witnessed people who feared for their existence, beggars and homeless people.

Today's Germany is described as a "slave state" and a "dictatorship of capital," and some letter writers reject Germany for being, in their opinion, too capitalist or dictatorial, and certainly not democratic. Schroeder finds such statements alarming. "I am afraid that a majority of eastern Germans do not identify with the current sociopolitical system."

Many of the letter writers are either people who did not benefit from German reunification or those who prefer to live in the past. But they also include people like Thorsten Schön.

After 1989 Schön, a master craftsman from Stralsund, a city on the Baltic Sea, initially racked up one success after the next. Although he no longer owns the Porsche he bought after reunification, the lion skin rug he bought on a vacation trip to South Africa -- one of many overseas trips he has made in the past 20 years -- is still lying on his living room floor. "There's no doubt it: I've been fortunate," says the 51-year-old today. A major contract he scored during the period following reunification made it easier for Schön to start his own business. Today he has a clear view of the Strelasund sound from the window of his terraced house.

Part 2: 'People Lie and Cheat Everywhere Today'

Wall decorations from Bali decorate his living room, and a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty stands next to the DVD player. All the same, Schön sits on his sofa and rhapsodizes about the good old days in East Germany. "In the past, a campground was a place where people enjoyed their freedom together," he says. What he misses most today is "that feeling of companionship and solidarity." The economy of scarcity, complete with barter transactions, was "more like a hobby." Does he have a Stasi file? "I'm not interested in that," says Schön. "Besides, it would be too disappointing."

His verdict on the GDR is clear: "As far as I'm concerned, what we had in those days was less of a dictatorship than what we have today." He wants to see equal wages and equal pensions for residents of the former East Germany. And when Schön starts to complain about unified Germany, his voice contains an element of self-satisfaction. People lie and cheat everywhere today, he says, and today's injustices are simply perpetrated in a more cunning way than in the GDR, where starvation wages and slashed car tires were unheard of. Schön cannot offer any accounts of his own bad experiences in present-day Germany. "I'm better off today than I was before," he says, "but I am not more satisfied."

Schön's reasoning is less about cool logic than it is about settling scores. What makes him particularly dissatisfied is "the false picture of the East that the West is painting today." The GDR, he says, was "not an unjust state," but "my home, where my achievements were recognized." Schön doggedly repeats the story of how it took him years of hard work before starting his own business in 1989 -- before reunification, he is quick to add. "Those who worked hard were also able to do well for themselves in the GDR." This, he says, is one of the truths that are persistently denied on talk shows, when western Germans act "as if eastern Germans were all a little stupid and should still be falling to their knees today in gratitude for reunification." What exactly is there to celebrate, Schön asks himself?

"Rose-tinted memories are stronger than the statistics about people trying to escape and applications for exit visas, and even stronger than the files about killings at the Wall and unjust political sentences," says historian Wolle.

These are memories of people whose families were not persecuted and victimized in East Germany, of people like 30-year-old Birger, who says today: "If reunification hadn't happened, I would also have had a good life."

Life as a GDR Citizen

After completing his university degree, he says, he would undoubtedly have accepted a "management position in some business enterprise," perhaps not unlike his father, who was the chairman of a farmers' collective. "The GDR played no role in the life of a GDR citizen," Birger concludes. This view is shared by his friends, all of them college-educated children of the former East Germany who were born in 1978. "Reunification or not," the group of friends recently concluded, it really makes no difference to them. Without reunification, their travel destinations simply would have been Moscow and Prague, instead of London and Brussels. And the friend who is a government official in Mecklenburg today would probably have been a loyal party official in the GDR.

The young man expresses his views levelheadedly and with few words, although he looks slightly defiant at times, like when he says: "I know, what I'm telling you isn't all that interesting. The stories of victims are easier to tell."

Birger doesn't usually mention his origins. In Duisburg, where he works, hardly anyone knows that he is originally from East Germany. But on this afternoon, Birger is adamant about contradicting the "victors' writing of history." "In the public's perception, there are only victims and perpetrators. But the masses fall by the wayside."

This is someone who feels personally affected when Stasi terror and repression are mentioned. He is an academic who knows "that one cannot sanction the killings at the Berlin Wall." However, when it comes to the border guards' orders to shoot would-be escapees, he says: "If there is a big sign there, you shouldn't go there. It was completely negligent."

This brings up an old question once again: Did a real life exist in the midst of a sham? Downplaying the dictatorship is seen as the price people pay to preserve their self-respect. "People are defending their own lives," writes political scientist Schroeder, describing the tragedy of a divided country.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan..

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,634122,00.html

By Julia Bonstein

 

Hollywoodsjóið 11. sept, Svæfandi trúarrugl og Alþjóðafjármálasvindl: Zeitgeist sýnd á RÚV

Ríkissjónvarpið hefur ákveðið að sýna kvikmyndina Zeitgeist: Addendum í ágúst. Um það bil fimm þúsund manns höfðu gengið í grúppu á Facebook, þar sem skorað var á RÚV að sýna myndina, sem hefur farið eins og eldur í sinu á netinu. Myndin verður sýnd 19. og 23 ágúst.

Guðjón Heiðar Valgarðsson, sem stofnaði Facebook-grúppuna, er ánægður með myndin sé komin á dagskrá. „Það verður gaman að sjá þetta innlegg í umræðuna. Það voru 5.100 manns búnir að skrifa undir áskorun um að sýna myndina. Við gerðum RÚV grein fyrir tilvist áskorunarinnar og það voru margir sem höfðu samband. Við þurftum á endanum að fá leyfi frá Peter Joseph, sem gerði myndina og hann gaf leyfi fyrir því að hún yrði sýnd ókeypis á RÚV,“ segir Guðjón Heiðar.

Hann telur mikilvægt að myndin fari fyrir augu almennings, þar sem í henni er varpað fram hugmyndum um sem hafa að hans mati ekki fengið nægan hljómgrunn í umræðunni. „Þetta er vonandi byrjunin á því að fleiri myndir sem hingað til hafa ekki verið taldar boðlegar fyrir augu almennings, fái allavega að fara í dóm almennings sjálfs,“ segir Guðjón.

Þórhallur Gunnarsson, dagskrárstjóri RÚV, staðfestir að myndin verði sýnd í ágúst og segir það aðeins hafa verið spurningu um tímasetningar og röðun á dagskrá, hvenær myndin yrði tekin til sýninga.

„Við höfum haft veður af þessari mynd og svo fengum við hana, ef þeir vilja líta svo á að hópurinn hafi haft þessi áhrif, þá er það af hinu góða. Við þyggjum alltaf góðar ábendingar,“ segir Þórhallur og bætir við: „Þetta er umdeild og áhugaverð mynd.“

DV.IS

BIS bankanum blandað inn í japanska skuldabréfasmyglið

BIS bankanum í Basel í Sviss, eða seðlabanka seðlabankanna í heiminum og síðasta vinnustað næstkomandi seðlabankastjóra á Íslandi hefur nú verið blandað í japanska skuldabréfasmyglið í smábænum Chiasso. Þar voru tveir menn gripnir með 17.000 milljarða kr. í bandarískum skuldabréfum.

Tveir fimmtugir Japanir voru nýlega stöðvaðir af ítölsku fjármálalögreglunni, Guardia di Finanza, í járnbrautarlest í bænum Chiasso, smábæ á landamærum Ítalíu og Sviss. Þeir höfðu í fórum sínum bandarísk ríkisskuldabréf sem hafa verið til ítarlegrar rannsóknar en líklegt þykir að skuldabréfin séu fölsuð. Markaðsvirði bréfanna er um 17 þúsund milljarðar króna.

Talsmaður leyniþjónustu Bandaríkjanna hefur komist að þeirri niðurstöðu að ríkisskuldabréfin væru fölsuð en nú virðist það ekki vera svo augljóst.

Komið hefur í ljós að Japanirnir tveir voru starfsmenn japanska fjármálaráðuneytisins. Að auki er annar mannanna bróðir Toshiro Muto, sem lét úr embætti aðstoðarseðlabankastjóra Japans fyrir skömmu.

Samkvæmt heimildum, áttu Japanirnir að flytja ríkisskuldabréfin til Sviss vegna þess að japanska ríkisstjórnin hafði miss trúna á því að ríkisstjórn Bandaríkjanna gæti staðið í skilum við skuldbindingar sínar og þar með staðið í skilum á útgefnum ríkisskuldabréfum sínum. Í Sviss var markmið þeirra að selja hluta af skuldabréfunum en þar í landi hefur ríkt mikil bankaleynd.

Önnur kenning sem er á floti samkvæmt frásögn í Asianews er að þessir opinberu starfsmenn hafi verið að smygla skuldabréfunum frá ríkissjóði Japan yfir í BIS bankann. Skýringin er að skuldabréfin hafi átt að létta BIS róðurinn við að mynda nýja ofurmynt í heiminum sem gæti tekið við dollaranum sem helsta gjaldeyrisforðamyntin.

Það er mjög erfitt að trúa því að ríkisskuldabréf uppá 134,5 milljarða Bandaríkjadala gætu farið inní fjármálakerfið án þess að nokkur taki eftir því.

Til að staðfesta umræddan orðróm ætlaði útvarpsmaður hjá Turner Radio News, sem skoðað hefur málið ofan í kjölinn og upplýst almenning um málavexti, að reyna að uppljóstra raðnúmerum skuldabréfanna. Áður en hann gat gert það var hann handtekinn og færður í fangelsi.

Í dramatísku símtali frá fangelsinu lýsti útvarpsmaðurinn því að handtaka hans væri pólitísks eðlis og væri í tengslum við áðurnefnd skuldabréf. Hann hafi hreinlega verið handtekinn vegna ótta yfirvalda við að uppljóstra um uppruna skuldabréfanna.

Fullyrt er að handtaka hans hafi ekkert með hugsanlegt sviksamlegt athæfi hans að gera og það gerir málið enn flóknara.

[sjá meira um málið í fyrri bloggfærslu]

http://visir.is/article/20090710/VIDSKIPTI07/253256383/-1

Tóku út helmingi hærri arð en skuldin sem þeir vilja fá fellda niður

Auk Björgólfsfeðga var Magnús Þorsteinsson kaupandi að stórum hluta í Landsbankanum. Magnús er gjaldþrota.fréttablaðið/þök
Guðný Helga Herbertsdóttir skrifar:
Björgólfsfeðgar tóku helmingi hærri arð út á hlutabréf sín í Landsbankanum en sem nemur skuldinni sem þeir vilja nú fá fellda niður. Skuldin er tilkomin vegna kaupa þeirra á hlutabréfunum í bankanum.

Samson, eignarhaldsfélag í eigu Björgólfsfeðga og þá Magnúsar Þorsteinssonar, keypti 45,8 prósenta hlut ríkisins í Landsbankanum í árslok 2002. Kaupverðið var þá 11,2 milljarðar króna. Krafa Kaupþings á hendur þeim feðgum er tilkomin vegna þessara kaupa. Upphaflega hljóðaði lánið upp á 4,9 milljarða króna en stendur í dag í tæpum 6 milljörðum með dráttarvöxtum og öðrum áföllnum kostnaði. Feðgarnir gerðu Kaupþingi tilboð um að greiða um fimmtíu prósent af skuldinni, eða þrjá milljarða, en þeir eru í persónulegri ábyrgð fyrir láninu.

Sé litið á arðgreiðslur sem hluthafar Landsbankans fengu þann tíma sem Björgólfsfeðgar voru stærstu hluthafar bankans má sjá að alls voru tæpir 10 milljarðar greiddir í arð. Arðgreiðslurnar fóru frá því að vera um 10% af hagnaði og upp í um 13%. Enginn arður var þó greiddur út 2007 en þá var öllum hagnaði ráðstafað til hækkunar á eigin fé bankans. Á þessum tíma sveiflaðist eignarhald feðganna á bankanum frá um 41% og upp í 55% en var að meðaltali í kringum 45%. Af því gefnu má sjá að Samson, eignarhaldsfélag þeirra feðga, fékk um fjóran og hálfan milljarð í arðgreiðslur á þessu tímabili. Sú upphæð er helmingi hærri en sem nemur skuldinni sem þeir vilja nú fá fellda niður. Auk þess sem hún er næstum jafn há og upphaflega skuldin.

Vísir, 09. júl. 2009 18:30

Countries Most to Least Affected by Global Slowdown

Qatar, least affected by the global financial crisis. Latvia is officially the hardest hit.

The global economic slowdown has hit several countries much worse than others. According to the World Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund, the crisis has pushed about 70 countries into a recession.

There are many countries however that are still seeing growth and for one reason or another have managed to avoid the fall out from the global financial crisis including, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Tonga, Kenya, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Myanmar, Yemen, Afghanistan and Qatar.

The global slowdown has hit the countries of Latvia (facing its deepest economic contraction since independence in 1991), Iceland, Singapore, Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Ukraine, Lithuania and Botswana the hardest.

According to the IMF all countries will be out of a recession by 2011, with only Italy, Spain and Venezuela having growth forecasts under 1%.

Here's the full list of 2009 GDP forecasts by country, sorted by lowest GDP percentage growth to highest.

Countries in BOLD are showing growth in 2009 from 2008 despite the global economic slowdown.




View full interactive map at Many Eyes.

Source: International Monetary Fund

June 29, 2009

http://www.wtnrradio.com/news/story.php?story=361

Hársbreidd eftir í junk

Lánshæfi ríkissjóðs er núna BBB- (C er "junk") og það er því bara eitt niðurfærslustig í að erlendir eigendur þessa fallít batterís og stjórnenda þess neyðist til að viðurkenna að eign þeirra er algjörlega gjaldþrota, fjárhagslega jafnt sem hugmyndafræðilega og siðferðilega. En þar sem öll spekin og siðleysið og gjaldþrota hugmyndafræðin kom að utan og miklu stærri dæmi en við eru líka á leið á hausinn af nokkurn veginn sömu ástæðum, er erfitt að skapa fordæmi. Munu Bretar bjóða eigin þegnum upp á Icesave-trakteringar þegar breska þrotabúið verður tekið til skipta? Hvað með komandi gjaldþrot Bandaríkjanna? Spánar? Ítalíu? Og fjölda minni spámanna í Evrópu og víðar? Þetta getur orðið dálítið pínlegt. En að sjálfsögðu munu stóru hagkerfin afskrifa sín fallít dæmi sín á milli en láta vesalinga á borð við okkur blæða.

Einflokkurinn leysir Icesave

Fjórskipta einflokkskerfið hér á landi tryggði að hægt var að ljúga fjármálasvindlið áfram og halda almenningi sofandi á meðan hann var rændur og hreinsað innan úr hagkerfinu og það flutt út. Núna er þetta sama einsflokkskerfi hjakkandi yfir nokkur hundruð milljarða gjaldþroti Icesave og samt fær þetta gúmmístimpladót ekki einu sinni að sjá það sem það á að stimpla. Hóra á ekki einu sinni að spá í  hvað hjakkar á henni. Þetta er algjörlega botninn á aldalangri leppvæðingu hórudraslsins sem hefur skipað valdamafíuna hér á landi. Icesave er bara hluti af miklu stærra og alvarlegra dæmi. Ruglandi gjaldþrota bankakerfis er upp á þusundir milljarða. Þegar hórudraslið hefur komið Icesave frá þá mun það presentera miklu stærri dæmi.

The Saga Of The Bearer Bonds

It just gets more and more odd after my original report, with the latest coming from a German newspaper (translation courtesy of Google):

Hit for the Zöllner: The contraband securities valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently real. Die italienische Finanzpolizei hatte zwei Japaner ertappt, die im doppelten Boden eines Koffers milliardenschwere Anleihen in die Schweiz schaffen wollten. The Italian financial police had two Japanese caught in the false bottom suitcase billion-dollar bonds in Switzerland wanted to create. Von dem Fund profitiert das hochverschuldete Italien.

Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called "mainstream US media" - but it is everywhere in Europe and Asia.

Japan, for its part, oddly said the following as soon as this story started to hit the press:

“We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”

Uh huh.  And the Japanese said in December of 1941 that all was well too.  Anyone remember what happened on the morning of the 7th?

Let's apply a little "Occam's Razor" to this entire story.

You're not going to walk into a bank with $130 billion in bearer bonds and cash them.  Nor are you going to sell a bond with a $500 million face value to someone without them authenticating it.  They will be authenticated before you get one dime out of them - no matter who you think you're going to "give" them to. 

So if they're fakes and you're "just screwing around", there is no reason to hide them.  Nor is there any particular reason to have authentic and recent original bank documents in your luggage with them, as has been reported.

Next, unless someone knew you were smuggling them, why would you be subject to that sort of search?  What made the people involved "interesting" to the authorities?  This doesn't sound like a random stop to me; how many people are carrying $130 billion in bearer bonds at any given point in time?  No, someone was tipped off that this was happening.  Now why would you bother to stop them here, prior to their attempted delivery of such instruments, if they were fake? 

Think about this: You know someone is smuggling a load of drugs.  You can either bust them immediately or you can tail them and bust them when they show up at the "meet" to exchange the dope for the money.  If you do the former the guys with the money get away, having committed no crime.  But if you do the latter, you get to bust both the courier and the purchaser - two times the effectiveness for the price of one, and double the seizure value, since you get to seize the cash too!

So let's assume that the certificates are real, as German media seems to believe and which, by the way, makes logical sense given what they were and the sheer impossibility of cashing a fake $500 million bond.

Ok, who has $130 billion in bearer bonds?  Remember, bearer instruments haven't been issued by the Treasury since 1982, when they became illegal to issue, at least to US institutions and residents (there was an exception carved out for Treasury instruments issued to non-US residents in 1985 - a time of high deficits)  The answer to that question: it is rather unlikely that there remains $130 billion of legitimate US Bearer issuance outstanding anywhere - to anyone.

Mr. Holmes would be initially puzzled by such a caper.  On the one hand we have the impossibility of the bonds being real, because there simply isn't $130 billion of issues remaining outstanding.  On the other hand we have the impossibility of negotiating a fake $500 million bearer instrument, making the exercise of counterfeiting one expensive and futile.

This leaves us with more questions than answers at this point.  

Or does it?

As Mr. Holmes is famously rumored to have said, "once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however implausible, must be the truth."

So what remains?  Let's run a theory here - one of the few possible remaining options, given the exclusion of what we know not to be true...

Are we willing to assume that all the "issue" of Treasury bonds has been done "above board" as required by law.  If 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, then the following is about to occur:

Who could have possibly been complicit in such a scheme?  I can come up with only two nations (and only nations could be involved due to size): The Japanese and Chinese.  Since the two individuals who were arrested were reported to be Japanese nationals......

There are tremendous implications in an event like this, again, assuming the bonds are real.

The owner is going to want them back, of course.  But Italy is going to keep a third as their statutory penalty for non-declaration on the border.  Oops.  That's great for Italy, but it blows bananas for the actual owner.

Of course Italy (or the US!) could declare them "fake" and as a consequence simply burn them.  If they are in fact real, that's an even bigger problem.  See, Bearer Bonds are issued without registration - they are as anonymous as a $100 bill in terms of who owns them.  That's one of their "features", and why they were often used for various clandestine money operations.  So if they are real and are destroyed, the owner is out of luck - their money is gone just as it is if you burn a $100 bill in an ashtray.

How much is $130 billion in this context?  About 1/5th or so of what Japan legitimately owns of US Treasury debt.  How would you like to take an instantaneous (and permanent!) 20% haircut on your securities?  That's what I thought.

To add some balance here, there have been stories about fake bearer bonds coming out of North Korea and other places for years.  But the idiocy of attempting to pass a $500 million certificate belies this possibility - who in the name of God would take such a thing and give you anything for it without authenticating it first?  While bearer instrument are "anonymous" in terms of who owns them, their authenticity is easily verified as they ARE serialized instruments.

I remain puzzled, and am not advancing the above theory as fact. 

It is, however, one of the few explanations that actually fits the facts, and for that reason, I think we need some answers.  If in fact previous administrations were issuing "off-book" Treasury debt in this fashion to sovereigns then implications are truly explosive as such issues are blatant and outrageous unlawful acts and would expose everyone involved to severe criminal penalties.

Let's hope we get those answers, and this isn't one of those "funny things" that just disappears into the night.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1119-The-Saga-Of-The-Bearer-Bonds.html

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