An Alberta based blog written by an Economist who has lived all over the province. I am an Information Maven, and I try to provide Albertans with information they won't find in their mainstream media. You might not believe it, but there are thousands of stories you will never learn of if you stick to reading your local MSM rag. I am generally apolitical, but am partial to the Green Libertarianism of Henry David Thoreau. I am also responsible for Alberta Blogs, a collection of bloggers united by nothing more than their love of Alberta. I live in Calgary, you can reach me at: aaron.braaten [at] gmail.com, and I'm on Twitter @abraaten.
To conserve cash, state controller John Chiang plans to issue IOUs by today to vendors, local agencies overseeing health programs and various recipients of state aid – including the elderly and disabled and college students.
He plans to send $3.36 billion (U.S.) in IOUs this month to safeguard $10.9 billion for payments he must make, including money owed to investors holding California’s general obligation debt. “The general obligation bonds will be paid,” he said this week. “California has never defaulted on its debt obligation and we don’t plan to.”
The world’s eighth largest economy in 2006, according to its Legislative Analysts’ Office, now needs to reassure Wall Street.
State officials see the need to sell $7 billion to $9 billion of short-term debt to maintain cash-flow once there is a budget agreement.
It might be useful to look up the phrase Patacon, which refers to the IOUs issued by the largest province in Argentina, just four months before it collapsed in 2001.
The Patacón (officially called Letra de Tesorería para Cancelación de Obligaciones de la Provincia de Buenos Aires) was a bond issued by the government of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, during 2001. The patacones were used to pay government bills, including state employees’ salaries during a period when the economic crisis caused regular currency (Argentine pesos) to be scarce. Patacones then circulated in the economy in much the same way as pesos.
First issued during the peso/U.S. dollar convertibility regime, just like other complementary currency Patacones could be attractive due to a revenue scheduled for payment in 2003 in pesos (practically equivalent to dollars). When the convertibility was abandoned amid fears of hyperinflation, the attractive of this revenue practically disappeared. The basis for the acceptability of complementary currency shifted to their use to pay taxes.
However, the value of Patacones became eroded as the series “B” was issued because as a way to put pressure on the Government to cancel a large debt, the company that printed them eliminated many safety features deemed too expensive, thus making them easier to counterfeit. Also, the revenue of series “B” was scheduled for payment just in 2006. The economic importance of Buenos Aires province ensured the acceptability of Patacones because there were plenty of large companies that found use for them as payment of provincial charges. Patacones were accepted outside the Buenos Aires province and eventually circulated (albeit informally) in border areas of neighboring countries.
If we look at this event as a milestone (or tombstone) in fiscal collapse, it might be four months before California’s mess filters through the rest of the economy. Maybe it’s a good thing the markets are closed today - the US doesn’t need an economic collapse heading into the July 4th weekend.
I’m not the only one who sees this four month rule at work:
Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Alabama Retirement Systems, the 43rd largest investment fund in America, spoke at Rotary Club here yesterday. He is one of the most respected fund controllers in the United States today by his peers.
One of my grad school professors e-mailed me notes detailing what Bronner had to say:
1) Next month (July) California hits the wall financially, that will send a ripple effect across the US economy, AND over the next two years one state after the other will fall to it’s knees financially as the federal government stimulus package ends by 2011. It has helped various states at different levels comparative to their economic condition. He says the stimulus package is what’s been keeping the states alive for now…except for California which was in such terrible shape the stimulus package wasn’t enough to really help them. “They go first” he said. Alabama would hit the wall in February of 2011, late in the game as Alabama is in better shape than other states. Bronner says Alabama might dodge the bullet if the economy revives enough by then. But, he doesn’t really think things will improve enough by then to avoid a crisis.”It will be the largest economic crisis in the history of the State of Alabama.” Bronner says Alabama will experience such significant shortfalls by 2011 that taxes will have to be raised substantially to avoid collapse…probably on property. And that practically all states will face a similar fate.
2) Within 120 to 150 days from now the commercial real estate market nationally begins to collapse as stores, malls, and shopping strips, and industrial plant have enough closures (store and plant) and loss of rental revenue to make them unable to pay their mortgages. They will start going into foreclosure unable to pay their mortgages in a significant way at that time creating a second wave of economic disaster starting three to four months from now. LINK
Hold on to your hat for another wild turn. Turner Radio Network (TRN) announced June 20 that it had new confirmed information the two Japanese nationals are in the “employees of the Finance Ministry of Japan.” TRN has now confirmed the two men arrested were trying to secretly dump Bonds as ordered by the government of Japan because the Japanese government feared that the U.S. government would be unable to repay its debts. Despite the assurances from Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano that Japan has complete confidence in the U.S. Treasury has confirmed the upon the serial numbers of the Bonds, part of the $686 billion of U.S. debt officially held by Japan.
June 24 (Bloomberg) — A New Jersey man described as an Internet radio talk show host and blogger was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill three U.S. Appeals Court judges in Chicago who earlier this month upheld a law banning handguns.
Hal Turner, 47, of North Bergen was arrested by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at his home today, according to a statement issued by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
In the days after the judges’ June 2 decision to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a National Rifle Association lawsuit challenging the ban, Turner posted on his Web site their names, photographs, phone numbers and work addresses, together with a picture of the courthouse delineating stanchions he called “anti-truck bomb barriers,” according to Fitzgerald.
“Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed,” Turner allegedly said in one Web site posting, according to Fitzgerald.
People make threats against public figures all the time - could the death threat excuse be a proxy for Hal Turner’s grandiose statements regarding the validity fo the bonds?
And from Asianews.it, the Vatican-based news agency that first broke the story:
Confidential sources, whose reliability AsiaNews could not confirm, claim that one of the two Japanese stopped and then released in Ponte Chiasso was Tuneo Yamauchi, brother-in-la of Toshiro Muto, who was until recently Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, which of course does not automatically mean that the securities are real.
However, other sources are saying that for Italian authorities they are real and that Rome is unwilling to play along with the US Federal Reserve, which described them as fakes without taking a peak at them, except via the internet.
Asia News, an Italian-Asian information related to the PIME, the Pontifical Isituto for Foreign Missions, was the main site for information italico over this blog to have reported the news on time and to seek additional information and suggestions for ” investigative journalism. ”
Being multilingual is a site for his articles that have referred most of the international media and, hence, even our own.
The site is run by Father Bernardo Cervellera, which is not an obscure missionary, but the former Director of Agenzia Fides, the prestigious news agency of the Vatican.
1. These bonds MUST be fake simply due to the fact that there was not enough debt outstanding at the date of their issue, according to official statistics. Since the amount on their face exceeds the total value of bonds in existence at the time, we can write them off as fakes. This is, of course, foregoing the possibility that governments run two sets of books.
2. The bonds MUST be fake, because in a world where the US issues trillions of dollars in off-book high-denomination securities it does not intend to repay, we live in a world where faith in the ability (and intent) of the US to repay its debts is shattered.
3. These bonds MUST be fake, because if there really are off-book bonds the US does not want to repay, it makes sense to devalue that debt by planting the meme that all high-value, obscure instruments are forgeries. This is the Market for Lemons and Gresham’s Law at work.
Something doesn’t sit right with me in these two news stories about swineflu vaccines for Albertans and Canadians. It’s pesky little words like “entire population” and “all Albertans” that get my attention:
Five-to-40-year-olds and Canada’s aboriginal communities should be the first to get vaccinated against human swine flu, experts say as Canadian officials decide who gets priority for the flu shots.
Under Canada’s official pandemic plan, the entire population would ultimately be immunized against the H1N1 swine flu.
But the vaccine will become available in batches, meaning the entire population can’t be vaccinated at once. It might take four or five months to get all the vaccine we’re going to get, during which time a second wave of swine flu may well be underway.
EDMONTON — Alberta’s top medical officer says the World Health Organization’s decision to officially designate the swine flu as a pandemic is no cause for alarm, but all Albertans will likely all be immunized for the H1N1 virus this fall.
WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - A purported $134 billion in U.S. government bearer bond certificates seized by police near the Italian-Swiss border are fake, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.
“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.
He added that there is only $105 million in Treasury bearer bond securities outstanding, so the $134 billion amount seized far exceeds the universe of outstanding securites.
The official logic is that these MUST be fake simply because “official” statistics do not allow for the amounts found on the securities. This is an “appeal to authority”. I see the irony in referencing Wikipedia on this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_authority.
But if the Treasury has a track record of being unable to reconcile its books, is it possible there’s an off-the-books system at work on the world stage?
I’m placing a high probability on these bonds being fake, but haven’t ruled anything out. It could be the mafia, though highly unlikely due to the difficulty in cashing these denominations. It could be North Korea, adopting China’s mode of Unrestricted Warfare. Who knows?
I’ll post a few links here about something called Operation Blackjack. It’s what all the buzz on the underground forums is all about. It’s up to you to piece together. The odds are almost 100% that June 22 will come and go like any other day. At the very least, someone is plaving a very intriguing game. I’m not going to explain it, but you’ll figure it out.
A follow up to my previous post, here are some links to other bloggers who are covering the strange case of the Japanese bond smugglers. Is I dig further and further, it appears these bonds are fake.
A commenter to my recent post on the Bilderberg 2009 event held in Greece had some very interesting things to say:
I tried to respond by posting a comment but the spam filter rejected it.
Of Interest:
1) No North American Media reported the Greek get together.
2) Frank McKenna (premier/TD Bank VP)attended-shortly after , he also was hosting a Clinton/Bush paid for dinner party in Toronto.
3) Dr. Samarasekera is invited- also on the Scotiabank board of directors and a successful fund raiser.
4) After Bberg she gives a honorary law degree, to billionaire Aga Khan- whose second wife carries the maiden name –Thyssen and prime Minister Harper gives Citizenship only the 6th freebie of its kind .
5) Remember Mulroney and his dislike for the public inquiry involving Carl Heinz Schreiber ,who just happened to represent Thyssen industries, the inquiry requested by Prime Minister Harper much to Mr. Mulroney’s chagrin.
6) Prime Minister Harper just opened a centre, “down the road” on Sussex Drive built by …Aga Kahn .
7) Aga Khans grandfather was a significant leader in the independence movement involving Pakistan during the times of succession from India and colonial rule around the same time Srilanka was formed.
Aga Khan is for a one world religion that “unites” all believers.
9) Last year saw Bill Gates and Warren Buffet fly in to one of the oilsands developments-CNRL Horizon a few months after Bberg and to which meeting the heads of CNRL were invited.
I strongly recommend that you may well see a dynamic change in Pakistan’s political and geographic existence in the not too distant future viz a viz a wholsale change of political leadership encouraged and emplaced by pro Bilderberg components and an eventual return of Pakistan to Indian control as managed by real or manufactured scenarios requiring change and responsiveness. India will likely invade/occupy Pakistan in a relatively swift and violence free action.
This is odd. Hats off to Urban Survival for spotting it. Two Japanese nationals were caught smuggling 134.5 BILLION in US “bearer bonds” through the Italian-Swiss border. So what? Well, these two represent an amount that would make them the US’s Fourth biggest creditor.
They weren’t arrested, so it’s possible they have something approaching diplomatic immunity. If so, why would they need to try to smuggle them?
This story is all over the international media, yet there’s barely a peep in the western outlets, save for Bloomberg.
As Spiegel notes, if the bonds are real, Italian law mandates that the smugglers pay 40% of the value as a fine, and already the Italian media is musing over what to do with the windfall.
But there’s one more detail to add to the mix, and that’s the amount of 134.5 Billion. None other than Timothy Geithner is on record as stating that, as of March of this year, there were 134.5 Billion dollars left in the TARP fund. That’s an odd coincidence.
Aga Khan is for a one world religion that “unites” all believers.