http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bonds/ en-us Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:29:29 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2286407/posts The futures look weaker at the open. There is continued fears over the latest jobs report. Furthermore, VP Biden's comment, in which he said that the administration "misread the intensity of the recession, aren't helping matters either. Most of the indices look to be down about 1% at the open. The Provocateur http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2286407/posts#comment Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:29:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2286269/posts More than one reader has emailed me asking me how bonds work and why I am so concerned about what Obama's policies will do to them and the economy with them. I think it's time for a wonky economics lesson for all the laymen out there on how bonds work. First, it's important to know that U.S. Treasury bonds are traded on an exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, much like any other investment. As such, they work like any other investment in any market. It's ultimately determined by supply and demand. If there are more buyers than sellers the... The Provocateur http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2286269/posts#comment Mon, 6 Jul 2009 03:42:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283143/posts Milan (AsiaNews) – Four weeks have passed since American bonds were confiscated from two Japanese who were travelling on a direct train to Chiasso, Switzerland, and while there has been clarification of some points, very few, Italian authorities have remained silent on the rest of the episode. In addition, a strange coincidence in the timing of the arrest of a director of an internet radio who had made revelations regarding the incident increases the already strong oddities surrounding the case. This added to the revaluation of the fact that among the evidence seized there were "Kennedy Bond" all points toward... AsiaNews.It http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283143/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:44:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277362/posts SNIPPET: "It was discovered, according to police, that McFarland allegedly cashed stolen saving bonds at the same bank five days earlier. McFarland, a wanted parolee, was booked at the San Joaquin County Jail on charges including burglary, forgery, possession and use of fake identification cards, possession of stolen property, and an outstanding Santa Clara County warrant and parole violation." MODESTO BEE http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277362/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:54:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2276930/posts June 22, 2009 Theories abound, but facts are in short supply. One fact that can be surmised is that there is a cover-up. The evidence for this is circumstantial, but overwhelming. It meets the standard of “beyond all reasonable doubt”, the supposedly highest standard set in American jurisprudence. It has been 19 days and the two alleged perpetrators/victims have not been identified to the public. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm the authenticity of the bonds. Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como,... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2276930/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:35:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276245/posts Well, just when you thought that the Bearer Bond story was finished, it gets twisted yet again. Remember, this was the claim: “They’re clearly fakes,” said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Washington. Uh, Bloomberg..... how about an accurate quote? "Based on the photograph we've seen online, they are clearly fake. And not even good fakes," said Stephen Meyerhardt, a spokesman for the Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt. Online? You mean that the Treasury Department hasn't been sent a high-resolution digital photo of what was seized? A week after the fact? I... The Market Ticker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276245/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:23:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275158/posts One summer afternoon, two “Japanese” men in their 50s on a slow train from Italy to Switzerland said they had nothing to declare at the frontier point of Chiasso. But in a false bottom of one of their suitcases, Italian customs officers and ministry of finance police discovered a staggering $134bn (€97bn, £82bn) in US Treasury bills. Financial Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275158/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:54:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275089/posts A funny thing recently happened at the Italian-Swiss border. Italian authorities found a briefcase filled with $134.5 billion in U.S. government bonds. While this now appears to be merely a massive counterfeiting case, initial worries were that a major nation clandestinely attempted to unload a staggering sum of genuine U.S. dollar securities. On June 3, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) arrested two Japanese men in their 50s. They were apprehended in Ponte Chiasso, an Italian-Swiss frontier town about 25 miles from Milan. Rather than traveling express to Switzerland, these suspects were on a local northbound train where they stood... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275089/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:23:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274171/posts A reporter is sent to Italy to learn more about the bond smuggling story. But nobody knows where the two men are. At least the Japanese press is sitll interested in story of the two Japanese men caugh withs ome $134.5 billion in (presumably fake) US bearer bonds. We can't read Japanese, and Google Translate isn't particularly helpful, but a reader informs us that the gist of this story is that a newspaper sent a reporter to Como, Italy and found that the men had been released, with their whereabouts unknown. Now, the easiest, most-benign explanation for this whole thing... The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274171/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:31:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274083/posts A decision by China to reduce its US Treasury holdings suggests concern about the US attitude towards its economic woes, Chinese economists were quoted as saying in state media Wednesday. The remarks, coming after US data showed a modest decline in Chinese investments in US government bonds, were in contrast to an earlier statement in Beijing which had said the recent sell-off was a routine transaction. "China is implying to the US, more or less, that it should adopt a more pragmatic and responsible attitude to maintain the stability of the dollar," He Maochun, a political scientist at Tsinghua University,... Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274083/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:51:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274076/posts According to Japan Today, two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false... National Terror Alert http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274076/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:38:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273142/posts Now remember that the U.S. Treasury needs to sell a couple trillion dollars of new debt every year from now until doomsday. (Forget the fantasy that the economy is going to recover and tax revenues will skyrocket.) Not only that, but the Treasury also has to roll over trillions in old debt which comes due. That's a heap of trillions, and guess what--there is no Plan B except to print off a couple trillion dollars and "monetize" the debt by buying it with newly printed dollars. Nobody knows what will happen if the Federal Reserve and the Treasury try to... oftwominds.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273142/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:00:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272889/posts So far as I can tell the only Bloomberg among all US MSM have published any news reports on the $135 billion of US bearer bonds being smuggled by two Japanese businessmen from Italy into Switzerland. This story has raised many interesting and important questions, to which there have been no answers yet. But there is another interesting and important question I haven't seen discussed. Why, when major European and Japanese media have reported it, have none of the US MSM done so? I can think of only two reasons: 1) the story is now known to be only an... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272889/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:51:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272907/posts Cheeky bastards. Before the left attacks me, read what liberal blogger Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake thinks about the Democratic ploy to attach a $100 billion debate-free IMF credit line to a war supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a minute to check out the citizen whip count tool they constructed to help defeat the bill. Nice work. Apparently the $35 billion in AIG payouts to over-leveraged Euro banks wasn't enough for Obama who has championed borrowing the $100 billion from your kids and the Chinese in order to give it to the IMF, so that they will rescue... DailyBail.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272907/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:11:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2272847/posts Here’s yet another huge financial story that has been virtually blacked out by the US financial media. Although on the surface, this story appears to be a non-event, if we consider some of the released facts about this case, you will understand why I consider it to be a huge story. On June 8th, the Asia News reported the following story: “Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds... Seeking Alpha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2272847/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:21:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272703/posts Watch this unbelievable video!!! Put it in a separate window, and make it a small window so you can read the transcript below in my comment. Glen Beck Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272703/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:22:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272628/posts LONDON -- The once-booming market for Islamic-friendly bonds, having suffered a contraction amid the credit crisis, now faces a new challenge: default. The fledgling market in recent months experienced its first two defaults, and they aren't expected to be the last as issuers like Saad Group hit financial difficulties. This is taking investors and courts into uncharted territory as they seek to apply Western laws to bonds that were designed to comply with Islamic law, or Shariah. WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272628/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:56:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272458/posts Fox's Glenn Beck is the first mainstream outlet to pick up on this intriguing story Surprise surprise. Fox News is the only "mainstream" US news outlet to be interested in the story of the $134.5 billion in (probably fake) bonds that were seized in Italy. Host Glenn Beck had us on to talk about the story, and they even got the first quote from the Treasury. The Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2272458/posts#comment Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:34:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2271771/posts Meno: I haven't seen you since spring classes ended. Adeimantos: I have been away: Paris. London. Frankfurt. Meno: Oh. Pleasant? Interesting? Adeimantos: Not really interesting--too jet-lagged, so I sit in my hotel room in my underwear, read the Economist and Financial Times, and reflect on how if in my 20s I had been in a fancy hotel in central Paris with someone else paying I would have thought I was in heaven, but that now I am just tired. Thus not too pleasant either. Meno: Middle age is a shipwreck? Kephalos: It gets worse... Adeimantos: However, it was somewhat lucrative:... Seeking Alpha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2271771/posts#comment Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:36:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271273/posts 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"... The Market Ticker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271273/posts#comment Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:51:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2270881/posts Milan (AsiaNews) – Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each. Italian authorities have not yet determined whether they are real or fake, but if they are real the attempt to take them into Switzerland would be the largest financial smuggling operation in history; if they are fake, the matter... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2270881/posts#comment Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:49:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270726/posts For those who love a mystery, this story has more than one.  Italian authorities seized more than $130 billion in bonds from two Japanese nationals as they presumably prepared to cross the border into Switzerland.  No one can tell at the moment whether the bonds are genuine or counterfeit: Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US... Hot Air http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270726/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:35:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270564/posts If you don’t understand the uproar in Friendswood about the city’s plan to issue $11 million in debt without voter approval, just ask yourself a couple of questions: What if city leaders are completely right about the legal question? Is it still a good idea to borrow money without asking voters for their approval? Is a good idea to obligate them when they have clearly indicated they want a say about any debt they’d be responsible for? City officials have asked a judge in Travis County for a ruling that says the city can issue certificates of obligation to finance... Galveston Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270564/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:26:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270109/posts FRIENDSWOOD — The city has asked a Travis County judge to say it is legal for Friendswood to issue $11 million in debt without voter approval. The city had planned to issue $11 million in certificates of obligation to fund roads, parks, an animal shelter and a records building, but some residents said the city charter prohibited the city from issuing certificates of obligation. While bonds require voter approval, certificates of obligation do not. The city charter was amended by voters in 1997 to prohibit the city from issuing debt without voter approval that it could not finance from its... Galveston Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270109/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:29:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270009/posts The auction results make absolutely no sense under "conventional wisdom." Median yield down, primary dealers took about half and indirect bidders took the other half, basically. What? 50% take for foreign central banks on 30y debt at a 4.6ish coupon? That makes no sense given what we're being told is coming: massive inflation, maybe even hyperinflation, commodities ramping to the moon, the stock market going to the moon in a hyper-inflationary printing explosion. The stock market rocketed on the release. I couldn't make sense out of the initial FX moves, especially in the DX and Yen. Someone was front-running in... The Market Ticker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270009/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:14:05 GMT