I was on my way to the bank the other day to make a deposit and stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a six pack. When I got back to the car my suitcase with the 134B worth of bonds was missing. Has anyone seen it? Appreciate any help.
I'm skeptical that these are real, but the Treasury used to issue bonds at these high denominations. http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache...n"&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a "For most of their history after World War II, Treasury notes have been issued with denominations never rising above a high of $1 million. Yet, from 1955 to 1969, the Treasury issued Treasury notes with the added denominations of $100 million and $500 million. The purpose of this study is to determine why the Treasury issued these very-high-denomination Treasury notes and why it stopped doing so. "
Random Crapital, I looked at photos of known counterfeit securities - they don't look like the ones in the Italian photo. Furthermore, the Asia news article of June 8, 4 days after the arrests, states, "As soon as the seizure was made the US Embassy in Rome was informed. Italian and US secret services were called in to assist the Italian financial police." And " the counterfeit work is such that the fake bonds are undistinguishable from the real ones." It also notes that as of 4 days after the arrest, Italian police, with the help of US Secret Service, were STILL trying to determine if they were real or fake. Maybe AsiaNews and Japan Today and the Kyodo News Service are really just "conspiracy theory" sites. Maybe not. But I sure didn't see any tin foil on those Italian police hats... And if AsiaNews is legit, and their article is correct, then there ARE "real" bonds of that denomination, which would, like the Japanese passports, take only minutes to determine if they were genuine. It's been over a week now. If the bonds were fake, THEY WOULD KNOW IT, and it would have been announced by now. The Italians get to keep 40% or about $53 Billion, so if the bonds are real, they're not gonna sweep this under the rug.
The US Secret Service - being a branch of the Treasury Department - has been assisting with cases against the "bond" fraudsters for a decade - as they should be. Primarily in Asia - which happens to be where the carriers are from - but also in Europe. Seriously, some of you folks are embarrassing yourselves on this one. What happened to the base assumption that media articles are written by semi-tards who are lucky if they have the capability to tie their own shoe laces? Depressing.
Why take them to Switzerland?? Why not just keep them under your mattress... unless you know that a nuclear holocaust is coming!!
Well, the Fed did try to get the authority to issue their own debt, but either they thought better of it or it got squashed by Congress in the initial stages. At any rate, that's off the table now, I am told...
I would agree its more than likely a hoax. But the motivation behind this is still not known. I wouldn't dismiss the story so casually. I think a few people here miss the point. Its the motivation that's the issue. We live in strange times. Fears of dumping treasuries, questions of the worlds reserve currency, fears of a US default or credit downgrade... So, is this merely a story of two idiots thinking they scored big? What sophistication does one need to reproduce these docs? If these two that were caught produced the docs, wouldn't they have the knowledge that the scam would unlikely pan out? That would make me think that an enemy country could be behind this just to influence bond sales. The ruse doesn't need to be successful, it only needs to last for a few days. I'm now thinking that these guys were set up to be caught by the same people that sent them. Funny thing is that back in March there was 134.5 billion left in TARP. Maybe that's why they chose that figure! I'm sure the truth will be out soon. This thread also shows me how jaded we've become of our's and other government's actions. And probably rightly so.