BLOOMBERG: SAUDI HOLDINGS OF US TREASURIES UNDER SCRUTINY
This absolutely crucial news story was shared by Mr. B.G., and I'm passing it along as possible corroboration of the idea we've been entertaining and discussing from time to time on this website, that "something has changed" with respect to the Anglo-sphere's dealings with Saudi Arabia, a change in part highlighted by that regime's own recent financial difficulties.
First, a little context. Conventional wisdom has it that the Saudi regime hiked oil production in part and at Washington's behest, as a form of economic warfare on Russia, to cripple the energy-driven Russian economy, and to punish Mr. Putin for his "aggression" in the Ukraine. The flip side of this conventional wisdom also has it that the Saudi regime was only too happy to do so, since the then-emerging US fracking market would be undercut due to its higher costs for extraction, a move also certainly to the liking of "Big Oil." Yet another consideration entering into this contextual background is that the sanctions against Iran are about to lift, due to the deal brokered by the Obama Administration and various European intermediaries, and with that, Iran's production now re-enters the picture (opening the possibility of course that Iran may be doing its own form of economic warfare on the Saudi regime by driving prices even lower. But that's another "high octane speculation" for another day).
With that in mind, ponder this article that Mr. B.G. shared very carefully:
Saudi Arabia's Secret Holdings of U.S. Debt Are Suddenly a Big Deal
There are a number of statements here that caught my eye, for they do seem to indicate that some sort of profound sea-change - a paradigm shift if you will - is underway with respect to the "special relationship" between Washington and Riyadh. The article begins by noting that the extent of Saudi holdings of US sovereign securities is a closely held US Treasury secret, and has been since the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the OPEC oil embargo. Then it notes that the regime has been "burning" through its foreign reserves as the oil glut has posed severe problems to the economy, causing it to even consider taking its oil company public to raise money to meet budget shortfalls. The article then notes also that the Treasury Department has disclosed the holdings of other nations, including the significant holdings of Japan and China. Only the Saudis get "special treatment."
But that may end in the future, for without some sort of accurate publicly available benchmark on the extent of these holdings, monetary policy becomes difficult to manage accurately; consider, for example, this statement:
Because its holdings are believed to be the largest, Saudi Arabia’s moves have drawn scrutiny, particularly as other central banks in emerging markets sell Treasuries to raise cash in defense of their currencies. (The Treasury doesn’t break out private and public holdings, but its disclosures say about two-thirds of foreign holdings are held by official institutions such as central banks.)
And then there's this:
“I come down on the side of thinking there should be more transparency,” said Jeff Caughron, chief operating officer at Baker Group, which advises community banks with more than $45 billion in investments. But at the same time, “the Treasury is constrained by political sensitivities and that comes into conflict with market participants that crave more transparency. It’s an understandable conflict.”
And events in recent months, from President Barack Obama’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran to Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric who challenged the royal family, underscore just how sensitive U.S.-Saudi relations have become. The longstanding rationale for the alliance has also been undercut by America’s domestic oil boom, which has made it far less dependent on Saudi exports.
Whatever the political considerations, some analysts speculate Saudi Arabia may actually be trying to hold onto its Treasuries as part of a strategy to bulk up on dollar assets amid the deepening turmoil in global financial markets.
So what's the high octane speculation here? Basically, it's this: there appears to be a quiet, though firm and growing conviction that Saudi treasury holdings should no longer be the big secret that they are. Such secrecy leaves everyone guessing, and in a volatile international economic and political situation, more, and not less, transparency would seem to be the order of the day. I suspect also that when one looks at the large sell offs of US Treasuries recently, and connects the dots here, that the extent of those holdings are probably already quietly known and quietly bandied about in the corridors of power. In this respect, it's worth pondering carefully the fact that Mr. Xi just recently returned to China from his Middle Eastern tour, and that all accounts indicate that the Saudis are ready to cooperate in China's "New Silk Road Project," a cooperation which will, like it or not, put them into some sort of relationship with their sworn Shia enemy, Iran. Whether or not Mr. Xi can pull off the long term lessening of tensions between the two oil giants that this project will require, it's an almost sure bet that he indicated that any trade between China and the Riyadh regime will have to be conducted in yuan.
And if all this high octane speculation and dot-connecting is true, then it's an indicator that the regime in Riyadh is becoming increasingly brittle and fragile. An end to the secrecy of its treasuries holdings, in any form, might contribute more to that fragility. And on the other side of that argument, one might also argue that continued secrecy might work against Riyadh, and for those in Washington seeking even greater leverage over the kingdom. This is a quiet story, to be sure, but one to watch closely.
See you on the flip side...
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@”it’s worth pondering carefully the fact that Mr. Xi just recently returned to China from his Middle Eastern tour, and that all accounts indicate that the Saudis are ready to cooperate in China’s “New Silk Road Project,” a cooperation which will, like it or not, put them into some sort of relationship with their sworn Shia enemy, Iran. Whether or not Mr. Xi can pull off the long term lessening of tensions between the two oil giants that this project will require, it’s an almost sure bet that he indicated that any trade between China and the Riyadh regime will have to be conducted in yuan.”
the trip is worth pondering carefully indeed, however i’d like to add another dimension to this trip to illustrate why it is “important”.
The trip itself happened after a new year rumor/report that the Chinese is to send 5,000 of its most elite troops to help Russia in combating Daesh/ISIL in the Middle East, which was a significant development, a development that was preceded by Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi’s trip to Beijing asking the Chinese for ‘military assistance’ against Jihadists, which in turn was preceded by the Chinese passing the new “anti-terror law” authorizing the use of Chinese military forces in anti-terror missions abroad, as is well documented by Dr.Farrell’s January 7th edition of the “NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE NEFARIUM”.
But there is another dimension to the recent deployment of “elite Chinese troops” to the Middle East that most people arent aware of yet, please pay attention to a recent Corey Goode/Davil Wilcock interview on Youtube, titled:
“David Wilcock & Corey Goode – FADE to BLACK – 1/2016 Revelations”,
@1:51:10 – 1:51:40, Mr.Wilcock mentions that a recent intel he got was the Chinese have developed their own “Black Ops, special forces” that are “systematically wiping out the Jahadists”.
please understand this, the Chinese may have made a ‘recent decision’ to enter the “ISIL” war zone, but this “elite Chinese troop” is not an ordinary special force, this ‘elite force’ has been carefully prepared by the Chinese for decades, and kept secret from not only the “public” but most likely most of the Chinese ruling leaders were not aware of its existence as well.
One of the most important reason for such secrecy on this “elite force”, is because this “special force” was most likely directly trained/prepared by “ETs”, as result of this relationship, not only they could have access to “exotic weapons”, but also they could have trained soldiers with certain human abilities that is otherwise “dormant” in average person, a Chinese version of the “super-soldiers”.
Evidences suggest, the “ETs” have been secretly training this elite force since at least the 1970s.
and the recent Saudi trip by President Xi is a demonstration that how “effective” this “elite forces” really is, the question is, if the Chinese have just unleashed one of their most top-secret military program that they have carefully kept secret for decades, a one that is directly connected to revelation of the presence of “ETs” on earth, can only mean one thing, as i mentioned before, i.e. 2016 is gonna be a “game changer”.
However, the Chinese are in Syria now, and using their “most elite forces” in effectively countering the “Daesh/ISIL” proxy army of the ‘Western Cabal’, is something more than just “counter-terrorist” operation, more than pressuring the Saudis, paving the way for the “new Silk Road” and “the use of Chinese Yuan in Crude Oil Index”.
The Chinese are in Syria to clear the way for “ETs” to establish a foothold on that area of the planet, in preparation for a even bigger “Event”, i believe the Hopis would call it “The Purification Day”.
Henry,
I’ve read your post with intense interest as they relate specifically to China most of the time; and also your worldview would tend to mirror their much more so that the westernized mind. I’m speaking of course, on generalized terms.
This post really floored me. Although this is the site for such discussion, as it is taken lightly and greatly appreciated as a somewhat of a sounding board to expand on points of views – backed by other links, at times.
I must admit I have been grappling with a cognitive like dissonance when it comes to these acknowledged alien involvements in secret meetings and strategies within high levels of government. I can’t really subscribe to this in the literal sense. I see it with lenses that see deception being played-out by terrestrial players. At the peripheries of this lens, is the opaque remnants of beings from very ancient civilization within our own solar system – recovering from?
should read:
NOT taken lightly!!!
@”beings from very ancient civilization within our own solar system.”
To be exact, My friend Robert,
these positive ETs that are helping the Chinese are mostly “Pleiadians”, as are the majority of the starships/motherships in the Galactic Confederation fleet that are currently stationed within the solar system and are involved in the liberation of this planet,
The “Pleiadians” are the closest “ET” group to the people of earth in terms of cultures and genetics, Cobra is a “Pleiadian-incarnate” and he calls the Pleiadians “star family of the Light”, they will be the first “ETs” group to re-establish a formal “First Contact”(as illustrated in Star Trek the movie with the same title)with humanity, once we learn to live peacefully with each other, as a planet.
They are instrumental at “preserving positive timelines” for humanity, but the Pleiadians, although a highly developed human groups that live as long as at the least over a thousand years and have all kinds of “superhuman” abilities, such as telekinesis and flight etc, they are “younger generation” ETs that are in service/ or guided by even more ancient ascended beings, some of which were once humans too.
The ancient ascended being that has returned to earth for “The Purification Day”, from the constellation “Big Dipper”, ascended beings were once “humans” too, who once engaged in a galactic war with the darkness infested “reptilians” and other negative “ET” groups,
since then they have long achieved ‘ascension’ and exist now on ‘another plane of existence’, because of their energetic and karmic connection to humans they are still involved with affairs of the earth and humanity.
If one truely understands the rich cultural and spiritual heritages that these positive and ancient beings left for the current cycle/generation of ‘humanity’, one will truely understands why they are “star family of the light”, as so correctly referred to by Cobra.
The ‘Syrian conflict’ has a “spiritual layer” to it, a war on human consciousness, the proxy army masquerading itself as “Islamists” are in fact a “occult operation” aimed at luring humanity into destruction and at hijacking human consciousness at a crucial time when positive cosmic energies should be awakening humanity,
just like what they did with so called “911 terrorist attack”, as Dr. Judy Wood so elegantly put it, it was in fact “a war on human consciousness”.
But now, the Chinese and the Russians are acting as “proxies” for the positive ETs and the ancient ascended beings to change the situation for good. In that sense, the infrastructure building and political/religious counselling are a “cover story” for the deeper “spiritual layers” behind the chaos and conflict in the Middle East, but these strategic moves by the joint Russo-Chinese governments still play their part in the contributing to a more peaceful world on the physical level of things, which is indeed important part of the process in helping humanity return to the embrace of the “Light”.
Pepe Escobar published an article on Sputnik News this week where he asserts that the Saudis are dumping a trillion plus $$ worth of “securities” on the market in order to collapse said markets and the global economy at the behest of the puppet masters. It was expected that the drop in revenue from the drop in crude oil price would cause KSA to burn through its foreign currency reserves to finance its budget deficit, but the figures Mr. Escobar cites are an order of magnitude higher than what’s been reported in msm. http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160121/1033486596/secret-behind-next-global-crash.html
Thanks for the link Anthroposophe looks like the House Of Saud is to be thrown to the wolves indeed.
More like they’re diving to the wolves. Is this the same retirement system that the Marcos family got?
From the article, ‘The logic behind crashing markets, creating a recession and a depression – from the point of view of the Masters of the Universe above the lame duck President of the United States — is to engineer a major slow down, cripple buying patterns, decrease oil and natural gas consumption, and point Russia on a road to ruin.’
I do wonder if the Saudis were told to do their ‘dumping of securities’ at this time because of the US elections coming-up. The timing would put the economy INSIDE a major crash right-around November.
Typically, the administration-in-office is blamed for the crash, although it is engineered way-up the food-chain. Do you remember, ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’? In this case, it would favor the Party out-of-office: the Republicans. What if this is a cynical attempt to gain office at the expense of the American public?
Anthroposophe,
Thanks for the link. Great article.
Looks like the Saudi House is being transformed from Assisted Living to the Nursing Home and thus,
Spending Down.
Those Wall Street Boys are, of course, charging fees galore; while the Natl Security State is crossing they’re fingers on Russia, aka BRICSA’s impending fall…
– NOT!
i must be missing something. all i’m getting here is that we have another clear proof that mr global is obscenely corrupt and his poster children are saudi and all who preserve such folk – aka the usual suspects: israel, zionists, u.s. govt, the uk,….
i don’t yet see the significance of more transparency or more obvious lack of it.
reminds me of farhenheit 911 when it came out. everything in it was old info for me. so i watched folk in the theater watch the movie. for months i thought it would change everything. for months i thought everyone knowing that everyone else knew the truth would make facts, well, as important as facts?
i don’t know that it made any difference. same applies to truth on 9/11 stuff, gmo stuff,… pretty much every idea for reform i’ve seen in 40 or 50 years. it seems all designed to do something other than provide impetus to real reform.
does anyone see any path from here to an improvement on any of this through this info? all i’m speculating so far is that saudi’s about to collapse first and worst. and just before that ship sinks, the rats are going to jump to bigger better ships (drought stricken farms in the southwest u.s.). and just after the rats jump and just before the ship sinks, mr global is going to crush that ship of state in some dramatic fashion with some other ships of state like iran, russia, us, israel, whoever to make up that ww3 scenario goshawks mentioned.
can we have someone help my imagination to picturing better scenarios for all of us from this one?
All the different uppity factions pretending to cooperate to form this sinister NWO all start to stab each other in the back. The henchmen with power who are suppose to carry out the various sinister plots at first intentionally throw monkey wrenches into their half hearted works to stall, hoping vainly their bosses regain their sanity before they are forced to mobilize a military and intelligence cue against them. The masses begin to experience more and more of what was only supposed to be delusions of conspiracy kooks and begin to panic and dig in and join with the prepers. Everyone worldwide begin calling out for the elites arrest for crimes against humanity and treason. The henchmen then only too gladly mass round up the elite and haul them off to one of their own FEMA camps to await trial and execution. The henchmen then attempt to take the spoils of their masters ill gotten wealth and power and instill a communist dictatorship which ends in failure do to worldwide rebellion against it. The Birch society then comes out of the shadows and tries to organize a global space orientated republic. How about something along these lines? Feel free to add much better to it if you like. Leave the shaping of the world’s future to my contradictory and sometimes dark musings and moods and you may live to see the end of it yet.
I have always considered the Saudi regime to be the ‘slush fund’ for the Western deep-state. In no other nation have TPTB ‘respected’ national boundaries in their quest for control of oil fields or oil pipeline routes. The Saudis are ‘blessed’ in this regard. I consider the secrecy around their Treasury holdings to be an aspect of that ‘slush fund’. Makes it easier to ‘deposit and withdraw’ without notice.
The above does make it curious where the pressure for transparency is coming from. Plus, the new, general ‘sense’ that Saudi princes are ‘on the out’. This would not be coming from either deep-state or alphabet-agency sources. Nor, from a certain Middle East ‘state’. Where, then?
A final thought that I just had come-up: It is obvious that Bush I&II were Sunni lovers. (Perhaps more exactly, Wahhabi-subsect lovers. Semi-Nazis; what’s not to like?) Shi’a interests were left out in the cold. Various types have ‘pinged’ Obama around possible Islamic ‘ties’. Has anyone noticed whether Obama’s ‘religious sympathies’ are more Shi’a?
It’s hard to imagine for the “white nights” to have financial problems, but what goes around comes around. The sabre rattlers may have had the good times, but maybe it’s time for them to have a serious think about what they are doing on the international stage. They may ride around in Rolls Royce’s now, but in the future, they may have to return to their original form of transport, the camel, and oh what a sight that would be.
The system that runs the globe abhors transparency.
Saudi Arabia is a poster child for a system that is corrupted to it’s very being. The cancerous money that is the systems’ life blood, the military muscle that beheads those who cry against tyranny, the minds that believe in a might makes right mantra.
A paradigm shift is literally a life and death matter; as the system is expressing, in no uncertain terms, that the human is the enemy:
the weak link in the military’s kill chain; the contaminate in the supreme manufacturing chain, the GigaFabs; on and on, in case after case – the human is becoming obsolete.
A new system is a MUST:
based upon our living planet itself.
Anyone for betting mapmakers might have to do a mayor change to their atlas in the future. How about the kingdom or republic of Greater Yemen or the Federation of Yemen-Oman in place of Saudi Arabia just speculating.
More like the radioactive Middle East wasteland no go zone. Looks to me like powerful interests are trying to set up the greatest clash of civilizations the planet has ever seen. Maybe they think they will hide out in Antarctica until the bio weapons and warfare has done its dirty work. Where ever they go hordes of more survivors than they anticipated and better armed, equipped, and disciplined then they ever imagined will be seeking them out. And the paradises they think they will enjoy in southern most South America and New Zealand will be taken by humanities survivors who have no desire to see their children die of radiation poisoning. Seems there is opposition growing in the ranks to the great culling or what kind of culling and New World Order there will be. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of them started stabbing each other in the back as evil always does when their well laid plans crumble near the finishing line in the fight for who will actually rule.
‘Looks to me like powerful interests are trying to set up the greatest clash of civilizations the planet has ever seen.’
Roger, you might want to search on ‘Pike Mazzini letter 1871’. And yes, I know about all the controversy around it. You have to go with your ‘gut’ as to whether it feels real. It would certainly account for the ‘push’ into a ‘directed’ WWIII…
(And, no, I don’t think that Masons are at the innermost layers.)
g,
do me a favor and link your favorite of the search results.
this is what i started looking at tonight
http://www.threeworldwars.com/albert-pike2.htm
already vaguely familiar. think i’ve seen it in another context. protocols of elders of zion?
ZDG, there really is no favorite. It just depends on how each author interprets the letter. The article you mentioned is a favorite, although I would strip-out the article’s ‘interpretation’. It would read:
‘The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam and political Zionism mutually destroy each other.’
The article’s authors interpret ‘political Zionism’ as ‘the State of Israel’. Personally, I would track ‘political Zionism’ back to uber-wealthy international banksters and their cronies. Stateless. ‘The State of Israel’ IS likely to be sacrificial to the aims of these long-term thinkers, and to be ‘glassed’ along the way. Now, whether Pike & Co. meant the narrow definition or the larger definition is hard to know…
‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ is a separate-but-related document. David Icke did some good research to prove to my satisfaction that it is genuine, and not a forgery. I have read it in it’s entirety, and it is bone-chilling. Truly Evil, and I mean that with a capital E…
The House of Saud has wielded way too much influence in the U.S. for far too long. Bush II holding hands and skipping in the Rose Garden with Saudi royalty and Prez O. bowing to Saudi belt lines is proof their agenda gets top drawer treatment. Slavery, terrorism and serial beheadings are Tuesday in Saudi Arabia and not a discouraging word appears in any U.S. newspaper. The U.S. has been being sold off to foreign interests for far too long. The Chinese appear to be following suit. I find their fall from gRACE interesting. If there is a serious schism in FedGov.Inc, the Saudi debacle should bring it to a boil.
If they are the only ones that are secret, then it should be easy to figure out how much they hold.
The Saudi woes are just beginning, it seems. What happens when those treasuries become worthless. Oops.