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06-21-2009, 04:07 AM
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#1 | | Raping Captured Dolphins since 2002 on EZ board days
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| $134 Billion in a suitcase
$134 billion, WOW! Add your conspiracy theories on why these two men have that much in a suitcase. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a62_boqkurbI Quote:
June 17 (Bloomberg) -- It’s a plot better suited for a John Le Carre novel.
Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.
Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?
The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.
The trillions of dollars of debt the U.S. will issue in the next couple of years needs buyers. Attracting them will require making sure that existing ones aren’t losing faith in the U.S.’s ability to control the dollar.
The dollar is, for better or worse, the core of our world economy and it’s best to keep it stable. News that’s more fitting for international spy novels than the financial pages won’t help that effort. It is incumbent upon the U.S. Treasury to get to the bottom of this tale and keep markets informed.
GDP Carriers
Think about it: These two guys were carrying the gross domestic product of New Zealand or enough for three Beijing Olympics. If economies were for sale, the men could buy Slovakia and Croatia and have plenty left over for Mongolia or Cambodia. Yes, they could have built vacation homes amidst Genghis Khan’s Gobi Desert or the famed Temples of Angkor. Bernard Madoff who?
These men carrying bonds concealed in the bottom of their luggage also would be the fourth-largest U.S. creditors. It makes you wonder if some of the time Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner spends keeping the Chinese and Japanese invested in dollars should be devoted to well-financed men crossing the Italian-Swiss border.
This tale has gotten little attention in markets, perhaps because of the absurdity of our times. The last year has been a decidedly disorienting one for capitalists who once knew up from down, red from black and risk from reward. It almost fits with the surreal nature of today that a couple of travelers have more U.S. debt than Brazil in a suitcase and, well, that’s life.
Clancy Bestseller
You can almost picture Tom Clancy sitting in his study thinking: “Damn! Why didn’t I think of this yarn and novelize it years ago?” He could have sprinkled in a Chinese angle, a pinch of Russian intrigue, a dose of Pyongyang and a bit of Taiwan-Strait tension into the mix. Presto, a sure bestseller.
Daniel Craig may be thinking this is a great story on which to base the next James Bond flick. Perhaps Don Johnson could buy the rights to this tale. In 2002, the “Miami Vice” star was stopped by German customs officers as he was traveling in a car carrying credit notes and other securities worth as much as $8 billion. Now he could claim it was all, uh, research.
When I first heard of the $134 billion story, I was tempted to glance at my calendar to make sure it didn’t read April 1.
Let’s assume for a moment that these U.S. bonds are real. That would make a mockery of Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano’s “absolutely unshakable” confidence in the credibility of the U.S. dollar. Yosano would have some explaining to do about Japan’s $686 billion of U.S. debt if more of these suitcase capers come to light.
‘Kennedy Bonds’
Counterfeit $100 bills are one thing; two guys with undeclared bonds including 249 certificates worth $500 million and 10 “Kennedy bonds” of $1 billion each is quite another.
The bust could be a boon for Italy. If the securities are found to be genuine, the smugglers could be fined 40 percent of the total value for attempting to take them out of the country. Not a bad payday for a government grappling with a widening budget deficit and rebuilding the town of L’Aquila, which was destroyed by an earthquake in April.
It would be terrible news for the White House. Other than the U.S., China or Japan, no other nation could theoretically move those amounts. In the absence of clear explanations coming from the Treasury, conspiracy theories are filling the void.
On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if the 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.” Adds Denninger: “Let’s hope we get those answers, and this isn’t one of those ‘funny things’ that just disappears into the night.”
This is still a story with far more questions than answers. It’s odd, though, that it’s not garnering more media attention. Interest is likely to grow. The last thing Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke need right now is tens of billions more of U.S. bonds -- or even high-quality fake ones -- suddenly popping up around the globe.
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__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by asian_XL  apparently, freedom of speech does not exist on RS
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Originally Posted by Alphamale I give a lot of people rim jobs. | My Feedback | 
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06-21-2009, 09:13 AM
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#2 | | Tech Mod
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hmm...interesting
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2000 Acura 1.6 EL (showcar) :: retired
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06-21-2009, 11:17 AM
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#3 | | Everyone wants a piece of R S...
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Shit son thats a lot of money...how about you spare a billion over here
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06-21-2009, 11:20 AM
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#4 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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thats more than money than...........africa.
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06-21-2009, 11:23 AM
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#5 | | My dinner reheated before my turbo spooled
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why doesn't this get more media attention...I call bullshit.
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06-21-2009, 11:27 AM
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#6 | | WOAH! i think Vtec just kicked in!
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06-21-2009, 02:25 PM
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#7 | | I only answer to my username, my real name is Irrelevant!
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wow thought this was fakebut now its on bloomberg oO
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06-21-2009, 03:16 PM
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#8 | | "They call me Bowser...RawR!"
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Didn't Don Johnson aka Sonny Crocket and Nash Bridges get busted smuggling over a billion dollars in stock certificates into switzerland like five years ago?
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"Damn fine car Dodge... Ran over me wife with a Dodge!", Zeke
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06-21-2009, 03:21 PM
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#9 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
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Can x-ray machines in the airport reveal legal documents and money even if packed discretely?
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Character is who you are when nobody is looking.
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06-21-2009, 03:32 PM
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#10 | | Rs has made me the man i am today!
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i could get rims made of solid gold with 134billion...
....28" for my escalade lol
hell, my escalade could be gold plated too
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06-21-2009, 04:38 PM
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#11 | | Proud to be called a RS Regular!
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$134 Billion is nothing  
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Marge, I think I hate Ted Koppel
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06-21-2009, 06:25 PM
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#12 | | RS.net, helping ugly ppl have sex since 2001
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Originally Posted by Aetios Can x-ray machines in the airport reveal legal documents and money even if packed discretely? | Your words are vague.
No one can answer your question correctly, son.
__________________ Feedback Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason00S2000 Invisible sky daddies commanding people to do shit is just so beyond retarded, I feel like punching myself in the balls until I shit my computer chair. | Quote:
Originally Posted by Chopstick 4 years ago, I pulled up to burger king, and asked to get a teen burger. I realized after the 3rd time i said it, I was in the wrong fucking place.
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Originally Posted by Sky_High [19-10, 22:51] how many post do I need before I can fail TOS'D posts. | | |
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06-21-2009, 07:20 PM
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#13 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
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Originally Posted by Alphamale Your words are vague.
No one can answer your question correctly, son. |
Happy Father's Day
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Character is who you are when nobody is looking.
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06-21-2009, 10:30 PM
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#14 | | My homepage has been set to RS
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Originally Posted by JayF $134 Billion is nothing | whats that like 12 cents?  | |
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06-21-2009, 10:37 PM
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#15 | | WOAH! i think Vtec just kicked in!
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: MI6
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Originally Posted by JayF $134 Billion is nothing | 
__________________
"TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico - A donkey is doing time in southern Mexico for assault and battery"
"LAGOS - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery" Quote:
Originally Posted by Chopstick so instead of teaching retarded monkeys not to cross the yellow line
give them a book and a bannana. the retarded monkey now becomes a smart banana | | |
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06-21-2009, 10:41 PM
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#16 | | y'all better put some respeck on my name
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Fake my ass!!!! It's a CIA cover up I tell ya!
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06-22-2009, 04:27 AM
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#17 | | I keep RS good
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it's in a lotta other news sources, just look up 134 billion.
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06-22-2009, 06:28 AM
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#18 | | Witness protection
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this is the way shady banks are investing federal bailout money...
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06-22-2009, 06:58 AM
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#19 | | Willing to sell a family member for a few minutes on RS
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thats alot of cheddar
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06-22-2009, 03:25 PM
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#20 | | The RS Freebie guru
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Originally Posted by JayF $134 Billion is nothing | 
I carry one in my wallet.  | |
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06-22-2009, 04:32 PM
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#21 | | HELP ME PLS!!!
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the whole thing is really strange. apparently the people caught were already released. whether the money was real or fake, they would defiantly have charges against them. which means the US or japan high up government told Italy to release them.... which means they were government people.
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06-22-2009, 05:09 PM
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#22 | | WOAH! i think Vtec just kicked in!
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: MI6
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simple.
jap gov wants to get money knowing usa wont pay debt back
so sends 2 monkeys and banks it
but usa bribes the 2 monkeys, and in turn, monkeys make themselves "caught", and then r free to go
us gov says punchline: "its fake. code orange"
and media spews shit to cover up
elementary, dear watso (o____~) v
__________________
"TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico - A donkey is doing time in southern Mexico for assault and battery"
"LAGOS - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery" Quote:
Originally Posted by Chopstick so instead of teaching retarded monkeys not to cross the yellow line
give them a book and a bannana. the retarded monkey now becomes a smart banana | | |
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06-22-2009, 05:12 PM
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#23 | | I contribute to threads in the offtopic forum
Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: n zone
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Originally Posted by Chopstick simple.
jap gov wants to get money knowing usa wont pay debt back
so sends 2 monkeys and banks it
but usa bribes the 2 monkeys, and in turn, monkeys make themselves "caught", and then r free to go
us gov says punchline: "its fake. code orange"
and media spews shit to cover up
elementary, dear watso (o____~) v | this post is literally as funny as a brain tumour
what a sad, abortion of an attempt at humour
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06-22-2009, 05:20 PM
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#24 | | WOAH! i think Vtec just kicked in!
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: MI6
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Originally Posted by Sid Vicious this post is literally as funny as a brain tumour
what a sad, abortion of an attempt at humour | 
and btw, it wasnt meant to be funny, it was meant to reflect the truth
__________________
"TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico - A donkey is doing time in southern Mexico for assault and battery"
"LAGOS - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery" Quote:
Originally Posted by Chopstick so instead of teaching retarded monkeys not to cross the yellow line
give them a book and a bannana. the retarded monkey now becomes a smart banana | | |
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06-24-2009, 12:51 AM
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#25 | | ESKETIT
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/fail
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