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November 13, 2019
Open Thread 2019-67
Comments
@ Realist # 200 about the extent/gratification of Russia’s insulation from the Western debt/fiat finance system
Russia had reduced its amount of US Treasuries to $9 billion as of May 2018 according to ZH which is the latest amount I could easily find online….which is a pittance and hence behind some of the bad feeling by puppets of global private finance empire……serious insulation from the fiat bubble
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 2:53 utc | 201
According to this Bloomberg article from early October 2019 the August figure is 14 Billion
Russia’s Treasury Holdings Continue to Drop
- The original version of this column was based on incorrect information. Russia’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries actually were $14.097 billion in August, according to the Treasury Department’s website. They did not fall to zero as the column first reported. Russia’s U.S. Treasuries holdings have found a new bottom.
Posted by: Realist | Nov 17 2019 4:05 utc | 202
Personally I think Gold-bug Peter Schiff talks an awful lot of self-serving horseshit, an awful lot of the time, but what he said in this July 2019 article might have some relevance.
Till debt do us part: Russia’s holdings of US Treasuries plunge to 12-year low – 18 June 2019
- The global gold fever, led by Russia which is diversifying its foreign exchange reserves, is the right thing to do as the US dollar’s value is being diminished, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff told RT.
The greenback’s role as a reserve currency is going to be questioned soon, according to Schiff.
“I think what Russia is doing or other central banks are recognizing is that they need to increase their gold reserves because of the impending dollar crisis. Ever since the US led the world off the gold standard, the world has been on a dollar standard. That was fine when the dollar was backed by gold but now the dollar is backed by nothing…” said Schiff.
Also on rt.com Russia boosting gold & dumping dollar from foreign currency reserves
“Up until now that hasn’t been a problem because people have still perceived the value of the dollar but I think that’s going to change,” he added.
Russia obviously wants to buy as much gold as it can while the price is still relatively cheap, Schiff said, adding: “That allows it to build up a bigger hoard of gold to replace the diminished value that the dollar is going to play as a reserve currency.”
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Posted by: Realist | Nov 17 2019 4:15 utc | 203
@ Realist with the conversation about financial stuff
I just read the link below from the Wall Street on Parade web site that you and other barflys might find interesting about Fed’s chairman Powell’s recent remarks to Congressman Flores from Texas
Fed’s Powell Says Forensic Work Ongoing on Liquidity Crisis; This Chart Shows Why He’s Worried
The take away quotes
”
Flores: “The Federal Reserve had engaged in some substantial repurchase market activities beginning in mid September and then the Fed was actively involved earlier this week. Can you tell us what’s causing the liquidity issues that are causing the Fed to intervene. You said they’re technical and I’m not disputing that but I’m just wondering can you tell us what’s underneath that, that’s causing that activity.”
Powell: “I want to stress that these are not things that will affect economic outcomes.”
Flores: “Right, I’m not implying that. I think you’re trying to do the right thing, I just need to know what’s causing it, underlying.”
Powell: “So one big thing is we’ve been allowing the balance sheet to decline in size and we stopped that process back in July. Really it comes down to the supply of reserves, which are something that we create. We surveyed all the banks and said what’s your lowest comfortable level of reserves. We added that up, we put a buffer on top of it and we felt we were probably well above the level of scarcity. And then in early September we had a situation where the liquidity – where banks had much more liquidity than they said they needed and yet it didn’t flow into the repo market.”
Let’s pause right here for a moment. Asking the mega banks on Wall Street, which blew themselves up in 2008 because they would much rather gamble in high risk derivatives and convoluted investment products with their depositors’ money, how much they would be comfortable holding in liquid reserves at the Fed is like giving a four-year old the choice between a pony or a book for Christmas. Naturally the Wall Street banks are going to want to yank as much liquidity as they can get from the Fed to enrich their trading books. And since when does the regulator of the most serially charged bank holding companies in America seek the opinion of the serially-charged miscreants?
………
All one needs to look at is the stock price chart of Deutsche Bank to figure out what counterparty Wall Street is worried about today. Deutsche Bank is tied to Wall Street and other global banks as a derivatives counterparty – to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars in notional (face amount) of derivatives. And while other big Wall Street bank stocks have rallied since the Fed began pumping hundreds of billions of dollars a week into Wall Street, Deutsche Bank has not. Two other firms which have not rallied are Goldman Sachs and Lincoln Financial – also heavily exposed to derivatives.
”
Evidently the casino game of derivatives is either going to plan or not. In either case, I expect soon to see some catastrophic resolution to the bets being made…..with public money…..
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 6:51 utc | 204
Below is another link form Wall Street on Parade about more propaganda from Powell to Congress
The Fed Has Created the Big Lie for Congress on its Repo Loans while the New York Fed Blocks Freedom of Information Requests
I will skip the quotes and just suggest you read it ……calmly……grin
We in the US have the best government the cult of global private finance can and has bought.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 17 2019 7:05 utc | 205
Pete Buttjig is surging in the polls. Looks like I was right when months ago I wrote that he’s the Dimcrat spoiler intended to give Trump a second term cause a homosexual will NEVER win the general. Buttgig is also a rabid Zionist. What else is new? Dìmcrat Buttjig will usher in more Zionist Trump shet. Buttjig should be booted from the Party. He’s never going to beat Trump, you Dimcrat MORONS! What a fcking disaster! Aye! People are so damn stupid.
Posted by: Circe | Nov 17 2019 11:41 utc | 206
@ Realist 198
I did not say that VVP would take any action or needed to. I said> ” The implication is some conditional pre-emptive action of major effect.”
Action are usually the result not of will, but conditions. I said conditional.
Obviously VVP cannot be responsible for American of Imperial FUBARs.
Thank you for showing me how people expect him to be blamed…all Empires use projection. And for the Briticism “man on the Clapham omnibus”, which was new to me.
I do hope there’s no violence. In recent “beta test blackouts” on the West Coast NA the people responded to pretty much zero cops and nothing working by volunteering to help one another, not to burn down the court-house or open the jail. That was, however, in a small town and rural area…deer, bears, lions, and river an creeks. How it may be expected to go on a longer and more extreme financial problem squeezing the nutzlossen volk in a big city, or 50 big cities, with the racial and class and “identity” cadres all primed for conflict – well that’s clear from the agenda of the army training schedule. One does hear things about that when the kiddies visit their proud parents and tell about what they train for…
Posted by: Walter | Nov 17 2019 12:29 utc | 207
they don’t care all that much about winning, circe, they just want to maintain their control of the cash machine. i wouldn’t be surprised to see clinton swoop in at the 11th hour at the convention and get the nomination.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 17 2019 13:03 utc | 208
“I did not say that VVP would take any action or needed to. I said . . . .blah blah blah ….
Posted by: Walter | Nov 17 2019 12:29 utc | 207″
########
Nonsense, that’s exactly what you said
“If he’s quoted accurately as “They ” the implication is that he’s got the trigger and a plan, or knows who does. The implication is domestic chaos, one may speculate. The implication is some conditional pre-emptive action of major effect.
Posted by: Walter | Nov 16 2019 21:14 utc | 191”
Clearly discussion with you is a complete waste of time since you are either too dishonest to admit to the meaning of your own words, or you’re too lacking in intelligence to understand the meaning of your own words.
Either way, it would probably be best if you take some kind of writing/comprehension course or,better yet, not comment at all until you have sorted out whatever serious psychological or cognative issues you have which cause you to deny, or simply not understand, the meaning of your own words.
Posted by: Realist | Nov 17 2019 13:38 utc | 209
If you say so, then it must be.
I am, of course, terribly sorry about your condition.
I said, “If he’s quoted accurately…” and wrote of implications subsequent to that. It is perfectly evident that you are in error as to the semantic value of what I wrote.
It may not be Walter that ought to learn to read, Friend. It may help you to study semantics and rhetoric.
Posted by: Walter | Nov 17 2019 14:09 utc | 210
From the-fix-is-in Dept.:
Arbuthnot Out as Assange’s Judge, Says WikiLeaks Lawyer Jen Robinson
Don’t miss the comments.
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Should I have posted this on the OPCW thead? Is there any institution that has not been corrupted?
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 17 2019 15:10 utc | 211