Personal announcement: When it rains it pours…

Dear Saker

stay away from the Ukrainian Sushi.

Signed

Viktor Yushchenko

Ok here it is, sticking to Ukraine as requested. How about this one?

“The Farce Is Complete: Joe Biden’s Son Joins Board Of Largest Ukraine Gas Producer”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/farce-complete-joe-bidens-son-joins-board-largest-ukraine-gas-producer?page=4

Saker, the best way to deal with those obsessed by Hitler and Jews is to ignore them. Trying to maintain a “grip” on things by demanding that certain discussions don’t take place is doomed to failure. Just seeing you say “Don’t talk about H and J’s” makes me want to talk about them.

I hope you get well soon, Saker!

I’ve a question for those of you who are economy/finance/markets savvy. In his latest article Paul Roberts discusses a sudden withdrawal of $104 billion in the US Treasuries in one week.

“A hundred billion dollar sale of US Treasuries is a big sale. If the seller was a big holder of Treasuries, the sale could signal the bond market that a big holder might be selling Treasuries in large chunks. The Fed would want to keep the fact and identity of such a seller secret in order to avoid a stampede out of Treasuries.”

My question is why wouldn’t the seller identify itself? Supposedly it was Russia, wouldn’t it be the fastest way to cause the stampede and help speed up the crash of the dollar?

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/12/fed-great-deceiver-paul-craig-roberts/

Я

Saker,

Methinks you need a professional food-tester — or maybe just be ultra-careful what you eat and drink…either that or have some friendly Orthodox Christian do a heavy-duty spiritual cleansing of your space — cause something nasty is attaching itself to your consciousness — and you need to rid yourself of its effects. Don’t fear. The only power evil has is to destroy itself.

As some were discussing yesterday, the MSM is slowly beginning to report actual events in Ukraine. And I’m reading their reporting with real interest. Journalism 101. Report facts on the ground. Increase readership. What a concept!

Be well,

AGS

This comment has been removed by the author.

Dear The Saker,

I hope you get well soon. Homeopathic remedy for upset stomachs is sulphur.

Rgds,

Veritas

Biden’s son in charge of Ukrainian natural gas? Whocouldaknode?

Maybe the news of a successful ambush of Nazi’s by the self defense forces will make you feel a little bit better:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-ukraine-russia-rebels-20140513,0,6457181.story?track=rss

Joe himself doesn’t appear to have made a bundle of money from his years in the Senate. Otoh, here is Wikipedia (yes, I know, but still) on his kid:

“Prior to his current roles, Biden was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest,[2] where he met his wife.[1] He was a founding partner of Oldaker, Biden, and Belair, LLP,[1] and of the mergers and acquisitions firm Eudora Global.[8]Biden was chief executive officer, and later chairman, of hedge fund PARADIGM Global Advisors, which he co-founded with his uncle James Biden and disgraced financier Allen Stanford.[7]
At MBNA Corporation, Biden was employed as a senior vice president.[7] Following that, Biden was appointed by Bill Clinton to serve in the United States Department of Commerce[7] under Secretaries Norman Mineta and William M. Daley. He was director of ecommerce policy issues in the Department of Commerce.[7] On May 16, 2006, Biden was nominated by President George W. Bush to the board of directors of Amtrak.[1] He was confirmed unanimously on July 26, 2006 by the United States Senate for a term of five years, and was the vice-chair of the board until January 29, 2009.[9]
On May 12th, 2014, Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, announced that it had expanded its Board of Directors by bringing on Mr. R Hunter Biden as a new director.[10]”

Gute Besserung

Debanjan, Я

That is a really important piece to read; wish I really understood it! Sometime this spring, though, Russia was rumored to have, what, bought or sold (I’m *awful* at this) a bunch of T-bills maybe?, and roughly that same amount. Maybe the Fed DOES know whodunnit, and just doesn’t want to say so? Please, anyone who remembers, fill us all in here; I’m clearly out of my element!

Dear The Saker,

I thought this picture in an article about Biden’s son’s Ukraine interests was quite telling:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/son-of-us-vice-president-biden-joins-ukraine-gas-company/500062.html

:o

Also I have read that the UN helicopters were used to remove injured junta soldiers – if true this is utterly unacceptable!

Rgds,

Veritas

Rgds,

Veritas

To anonymous @13 May, 2014 17:27

Thank you so much for the beautiful song. Coul’d you translate the lyrics for our English speaking friends on this blog? They will understand clearly what is going on in this Ukraine -Russia survival mode.

And dear Saker I have to admit
that I agree with the comment from Anonymous 13 May, 2014 16:38 You do understand how the energy works and how it could be missused against the innocent.
Please watch your food and try to eat home made food. If you still have a symptoms of the stomach flu try eat fresh banana it also helps,but most of all, try to get as much possible rest and try to meditate.
I wish you a speedy recovery, we need you, your wisdom, your humor and clear mind blessed with justice for all of us.

If Russia dumped the T Bills, perhaps they wanted to remain anon – sending a message to USG?

Here’s link to which country bought how much in T Bills and when in the last year –

http://www.treasury.gov/ticdata/Publish/mfh.txt

mind-boggling! The entire world is forced to buy…

Saker

I support Russia in its current stand against AngloZion but I am concerned that you have not said a word about the fate of Muslim Tartars in Crimea, who have historically only suffered at the hands of Russians. Naturally, the mid eastern Muslim world (Iran, Syria may be exceptions) is uneasy at the Russian occupation of Crimea and is seriously (legitimately) concerned. As a Muslim, I tend to support Russia mostly but I never forget what was done in Chechneya. I disagree with you when you paint kind of a white knight picture of Russia in International arena; to me Russia is just not the worse out there. Also, Russia lost my trust at least when they tuned their back on delivering S-300 to Iran even after receiving payment for them under pressure (or for appeasement) of whoelse, anglozion. What you say?

Get Well Soon.

Regards,

Dear Saker,
hope you’ll completely recover soon.

Best Wishes, Hugs and Regards!
M.

crone 19:56 — Aaah, that was the one! I knew I’d seen it — but it hasn’t shown up yet. Dang. It should any time though.

It is said that a good laugh is the best medicine.
So:”Ukraine: Plane Failing to Take off”
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/11/ukraine-plane-failing-to-take-off.html
At least the first paragraphs are really funny. The rest… rather tragic.

Regarding the $104 billion sale of US Treasury bonds, Я asked, “Why wouldn’t the seller identify itself?” Presumably because everyone knows (or at least assumes) that the seller was Russia.

I don’t claim to know anything about these things, but as I understand it, a US Treasury bond is an IOU issued by the US Treasury, a promise to pay a specified amount of US dollars (what are they?) after a certain period of time, plus ‘coupon payments’ every six months. Russia apparently held over $120 billion of these IOUs and recently sold $104 billion of them. But a sale requires a buyer. So who bought these IOUs? If Russia offered them for sale and no-one wanted to buy them then that would indicate that they were pretty much worthless, which would make it rather difficult for the US Treasury to sell more IOUs in future (which the US govt needs to do in order to pay its bills). So in the absence of any other buyer, the Federal Reserve had to step in and buy what Russia was offering. Presumably it paid for the bonds in US dollars (hot off the press), which the seller (Russia) could then convert to another currency (roubles, yuan, etc.) or use to buy gold. The result is that the US Treasury (i.e., the US government) now owes an extra $104 billion to the Federal Reserve. Presumably the Fed knows that the US Treasury can never pay what it owes, and that the $104 billion in IOUs is basically worthless, but the important thing is to maintain the illusion that the US dollar is a reliable store of value, since loss of faith in the US dollar would have severely negative implications for how the US conducts its affairs.

Of course, I may be completely mistaken, in which case I welcome correction by someone who understands this better than I do.

GrahamWPhillips @GrahamWP_UK · 11 sek.

**Breaking** In #Slavyansk now and there is a heavy gunfight going on to the north of the city, video to come very soon.

https://twitter.com/GrahamWP_UK

@anonomous 19:51

“I support Russia in its current stand against AngloZion but I am concerned that you have not said a word about the fate of Muslim Tartars in Crimea”

There were posts when the crisis in the Crimea was unfolding where Saker mentioned and elaborated on the Tartars there. You can go back and read them.

“who have historically only suffered at the hands of Russians”

I saw a programme on Al Jazeera where they were showing Tartar exiles returning and finding their homes occupied or resettled. In a situation where historically the Tartars sided with the Ottoman Empire, I don’t see what other reaction they should expect from the victors. Armenians only suffered at the the hands of the Ottomons, should we as Muslims not concern ourselves with our behaviour towards others first?

“the mid eastern Muslim world (Iran, Syria may be exceptions) is uneasy at the Russian occupation of Crimea and is seriously (legitimately) concerned”

The Middle Eastern Muslim world should be more concerned about seven synchronised blasts that happened in Iraq yesterday, of their brothers starving in Syria, of the repression in Bahrain, of the crazies in Saudi and Egypt, of their inability to take in Palestinian refugees, of the disparities in income, of unmanageable populations, of grinding unemployment, of corrupt leaders…

“As a Muslim, I tend to support Russia”

Why?

“I disagree with you when you paint kind of a white knight picture of Russia in International arena”

I agree that Russia is no angel. But the contrast in the behaviour of other players and Russia does make it look like a knight in shinning armour. At least to half the world.

“Also, Russia lost my trust at least when they tuned their back on delivering S-300 to Iran even after receiving payment for them under pressure “

Not that my trust or your trust matters, but Iran has no alliance with Russia. They had a contract. If Russia backs out, Iran can sue for damages. Should we trust Russia again now that it’s building Iran a couple of more nuclear reactors for “peaceful purposes?”

A fellow Muslim

Mindfriedo

Another great post by Raúl Ilargi at Theautomaticearth:

http://www.theautomaticearth.com/debt-rattle-may-12-2014-american-crimes-against-humanity/

Я

@Brian
13 May, 2014 20:33

…there is an ongoing deception said Paul Craig Roberts, Economist, former Assistant Secretary of The Treasury for Economic Policy under President Regan, Associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

The Fed Is The Great Deceiver
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/12/fed-great-deceiver-paul-craig-roberts/

Is the Fed “tapering”? Did the Fed really cut its bond purchases during the three month period November 2013 through January 2014? Apparently not if foreign holders of Treasuries are unloading them.
From November 2013 through January 2014 Belgium with a GDP of $480 billion purchased $141.2 billion of US Treasury bonds. Somehow Belgium came up with enough money to allocate during a 3-month period 29 percent of its annual GDP to the purchase of US Treasury bonds.
Certainly Belgium did not have a budget surplus of $141.2 billion. Was Belgium running a trade surplus during a 3-month period equal to 29 percent of Belgium GDP?

No, Belgium’s trade and current accounts are in deficit.

Did Belgium’s central bank print $141.2 billion worth of euros in order to make the purchase?
No, Belgium is a member of the euro system, and its central bank cannot increase the money supply.

So where did the $141.2 billion come from?

There is only one source. The money came from the US Federal Reserve, and the purchase was laundered through Belgium in order to hide the fact that actual Federal Reserve bond purchases during November 2013 through January 2014 were $112 billion per month.[.]

Why did the Federal Reserve have to purchase so many bonds above the announced amounts and why did the Fed have to launder and hide the purchase?
Some country or countries, unknown at this time, for reasons we do not know dumped $104 billion in Treasuries in one week.
[.]
more

Anon Mongoose

Hope you get well soon. Here is a good read from Dmitry Orlov
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2014/05/statecraft-or-witchcraft.html#more

Comment otd, from anonymous at MoA:

Could an American ‘Pussy Riot’ perform a song called ‘Fuck Obama, the US and the EU’ in the lobby of JP Morgan Chase on Wall Street? The freedom of America is such that they couldn’t unload their amps out of the van. That is the freedom that is being sold to Ukraine and to the Western public. Fortunately, Donetsk and Luhansk aren’t buying.

The only people buying American Freedom are the same ones who are selling.

saker, sorry to hear that you are not feeling well. hope you get better soon.
wishing you a happy quick recovery.

re: rumors of your eating bad fast foods.

Hey, hey, guys stop it!!! It isn’t fast food that is depressing his immune system nor is it camel fever or any such stuff. My rumor to add to the mill is that it is worry.
Jeez, after reading his analysis of nuclear war, defcon5, deterrent strategies, and the perhaps dubious future of the human race, my stomach was aching!!! Let’s all agree that our doom will probably be an errant asteroid and leave the doomsday scenarios aside.
Seriously, Saker, my prayers are for your recovery. The elites can not lie to us when blogs like this add to the creative buzz and hum of the compassionate heart of the world.

Nora, singing a foul ditty in a Cathedral was one of the least vulgar and repulsive of the Pussy Riot harridans’ provocations. Nasty little girls.

Nora, US Treasury bonds are certainly Imperial Tribute. As are military purchases from the Empire. Australia has just ‘pissed up against a wall’, twelve billion for 60 US F-35 ‘Flying Turkeys’. Meanwhile the psychotic Rightwing Abbott regime is savagely cutting pensions, health, education, welfare and environmental spending, targeting the old, the young, the poor and the disabled.

A lot of nonsensical economic posts here. Much of the economics expressed here seems to rest on the concept that the US debt needs to be paid off in gold or something. That hasn’t been the case since 1933.

US Treasury Bonds represent a risk free savings accout for people who sell goods into the American market and don’t have an imemdiate use for the cash recieved. If you sell them, you end up with dollars. In order to get rid of dollars, you have to purchase another currency with them. If dumping bonds or dollars sent the price of a financial instrument out of line (i.e. driving up interest rates by dumping bonds), the Wall St. types would quickly pile in to profit, which would drive prices up and interest rates back down. In essence, Bonds are simply another form of cash.

Dollars are created by the US government running a budget deficit. The Federal Reserve monetizes the deficit by providing bank reserves to purchase the bonds covering the federal accounts, effectively injecting new cash into the economy.

Dollars are desired because the Arabs sell oil in dollars and because economic transactions in America occur in dollars and taxes due in America have to be pad in dollars. The use of dollars for international settlement of trade is a convenience, not a necessity to the US. It forms a sort of neutral account like gold used to by which every currency can be converted to another at reasonable ratios. What the US really cares about is oil being sold in dollars, hence its close relationship with repressive Arab Gulf Petro-States and its encouragement of them to use dollars as their currency. This was also the cause of recent unpleasantness in Iraq and Libya, both of which threatened to sell oil in alternate currencies. As long as the world buys oil in dollars, the world has to sell goods into the US market to obtain dollars, effetively making global trade a modern form of the tribute Rome used to receive – the US gets to run endless current account deficits that are financed by the US running a budget deficit to produce excess dollars. That is the essence of the global US financial system.

When looked at from the perspective of China for example, China gets the opportunity to develop and prosper, but only on terms granted by the US – to sell its surplus production to the US for dollars printed out of nothing which can be used to purchase critical goods elsewhere in the world to fund further growth. From the Chinese perspective, this is a worthwhile transaction. If they did not feel it was, China would sell less to the US and accept fewer dollars in return, and sell more elsewhere and gain more of another currency. Similarly the US, with fewer cheap Chinese goods would have to produce more of its own consumption, realigning current US economics closer to the system in place until 1973 where more production was domestic.

Does the world have an alternative? Only if it can find a market for goods sold to the US in another country. Would the US be hurt be importing fewer goods essentially for free? Only if you consider increased domestic production harmful. Overall, the system has to be in balance.

Mulga,

A little bit more from FP on that plane, just before they refer to it as “a virtual flying piano” :

“The design was born in the late 1980s in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon agency that has earned an undeserved reputation for astute innovation. It emerged as a proposal for a very short takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft (known as “STOVL”) that would also be supersonic. This required an airframe design that — simultaneously — wanted to be short, even stumpy, and single-engine (STOVL), and also sleek, long, and with lots of excess power, usually with twin engines.
President Bill Clinton’s Pentagon bogged down the already compromised design concept further by adding the requirement that it should be a multirole aircraft — both an air-to-air fighter and a bomber. This required more difficult tradeoffs between agility and low weight, and the characteristics of an airframe optimized to carry heavy loads. Clinton-era officials also layered on “stealth,” imposing additional aerodynamic shape requirements and maintenance-intensive skin coatings to reduce radar reflections. They also added two separate weapons bays, which increase permanent weight and drag, to hide onboard missiles and bombs from radars. On top of all that, they made it multiservice, requiring still more tradeoffs to accommodate more differing, but exacting, needs of the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.
Finally, again during the Clinton administration, the advocates composed a highly “concurrent” acquisition strategy. That meant hundreds of copies of the F-35 would be produced, and the financial and political commitments would be made, before the test results showed just what was being bought.”

As Mr. Nora said (while I was laughing out loud), “And the Clinton administration were supposed to be the smart guys!”

Dear Saker and friends,

Saker, I read your posts and comments on most days.

I’m an old lady, so I don’t have much to add to all the excellent comments.

However, I can see in my lifetime how Gorbachov, beloved by the West, gave away the farm, for all of us.

The only bulwark against capitalism was communism, and that is apparently dead.

God save us.

Lindka

PS Get well soon.

Saker

Food poisoning is no fun, hope it passes quickly for you.

Perhaps I posted this previously, if so, I apologize.

Dear Saker and friends,

Saker, I read your posts and comments on most days.

I’m an old lady, so I don’t have much to add to all the excellent comments.

However, I can see in my lifetime how Gorbachov, beloved by the West, gave away the farm, for all of us.

The only bulwark against capitalism was communism, and that is apparently dead.

God save us.

Lindka

PS Get well soon.

Dearest Mumblebrain
please advise where you heard Oz blew $12b for 60 Flying coffins. If this means we have paid up front I’d really like to know. If so, this “investment” is a greater procurement scandal since the Menzies bum mates paid in advance for 24 TFX/F111’s c.fifty years ago.

Get well S.
And okay, no more going on like a dripping tap, but, did you know Pope John Paul ll was a Satanist?