When we reported last month that in a shocking twist, "Belgium" holdings of Treasurys had soared by a massive amount in the past three months, making the tiny country the third largest holder of US paper, our Belgian readers took offsense alleging it is impossible that Belgium itself could be buying all this paper, explaining it was all Euroclear. Well, yes: we know and noted that, which is why those same readers probably should have actually read the part in the post which said: "our question is: just who is Belgium being used as a front for?
Recall that for years, the "UK" line item on TIC data was simply offshore accounts transaction on behalf of China. Of course, since China hasn't added any net US paper holdings in the past year, the UK, and China, are both irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. "
So yes, to clarify for our trigger-happy Belgian (non) readers: it is quite clear that Belgium itself is not the buyer. What is not clear is who the mysterious buyer using Belgium as a front is. Because that same "buyer", who to further explain is not China, just bought another whopping $31 billion in Treasurys in February, bringing the "Belgian" total to a record $341.2 billion, cementing "it", or rather whoever the mysterious name behind the Euroclear buying rampage is, as the third largest holder of US Treasurys, well above the hedge fund buying community, also known as Caribbean Banking Centers, which held $300 billion in March.
In summary: someone, unclear who, operating through Belgium and most likely the Euroclear service (possible but unconfirmed), has added a record $141 billion in Treasurys since December, or the month in which Bernanke announced the start of the Taper, bringing the host's total to an unprecedented $341 billion!
Also of note: Chinese holdings of US Paper dropped by $2.7 billion to $1273 billion, offset by Japan's $9 billlion increase in holdings to $1210 billion, as the convergence between the two countries resumes.
One thing that is certain: the mystery buyer is not Russia, which in February, or just as the Ukraine conflict was starting, sold another $6 billion, bringing the Russian total to $126 billion, the lowest since 2011, and the biggest annual drop, -24%, in holdings in history.
its my mate gary, panic over.
nothing is as "shocking" as the spike in the last hour of open trading on the NYSE.
ho-lee-sheet
Yeah, after Belgium, it will be Netherlands for a few months, then it will be Austria for a few months and this shit show continues till everyone is stacked with worthless treasuries and you know what happens after that.
Its the Fed! ...Giving itself a good'ol reach around.
I believe it was Casey Research who wrote it was simply Russia moving custodial services from the US to Belgium to avoid any potential problems.
Of course it's the Fed..buying with printed money.....what scam artists they are...special place in hell for all of them from the last 100 years
It's probably Putin laying the ground for his next act of Western humiliation.
This country is a fucking joke
Terrrrrrrrrrrist!!!
shell games... endless entertainment.
WB7 needs a pic of a Yellen in Belgian clothing.
Hey, it's Tuesday... it must be Belgium!
It's the ECB.
They buy our bonds and we buy the Greek and Italian bonds and we all get to sing a happy song.
Phantom buyers for phoney money
Belgium is the new
Pirates of the CaribbeanBelgium.....what a country.
They drive pickup trucks and everyone has two wives.....even the women.
Isn't it obvious that this is Japan selling freely minted Yen and buying USD?
The Fed is tapering and Abenomics is replacing QE as the spigot of global purchasing errosion.
You know things are bad when America has to secretly buy bonds from itself under assumed names to keep the farce going and the money rolling in
Researching...
Banks in Belgium...
Europabank...
Founded by International bank of Washington... which...
Controls Liberian shipping registry...
Kennedy...wrote new regs trying to remove Liberian registry tax exemptions...
IBW founded by old MIC...
http://www.relbanks.com/europe/belgium
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/liberia/registry.htm
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/jfkwhy.htm
http://iowabusinesshalloffame.com/inductees/olmsted-georgeh.html
etc.
Oh, I dunno. Rothcschild central bankers just mixing up ownership of the United States while they still can, I suppose...
HAHA...Yellen in lederhosen :P
Cheese smarts..
341 Billion here...341 Billion there..
Pretty soon you are talking about real blankfein money.
and "Yellen in lederhosen" ??
I can never dream of septemberfest hops again.
The Arctic...perhaps Alaska? He has 3 years of utter incompetence left.
Ok Casey research theory
Russia protecting their precious treasuries ?
End game is ?
I've read recently that this bond buying is by the ECB and attributed to Belgium since Brussels is the capital of the EU.
....and funded directly by a country called Yellgium
I love open transparent financial markets!
....just remember in an open transparent market the first to be terminated are those that know otherwise and are willing to speak out
keep your nail gun close and only let your friends use it
I probably should not have loaded my nail gun with +P nails...
I would never put personal protection loads in my concealed carry nail gun.
and omi gosh.. now that it occurs to me , it is time for all of us card carrying commie- libs to protest all of the construction sites with those evil carpenters open carrying and slinging 10 gauge nailers in front of God, the world and especially the kids,
we need to get those '.fn bastard constuction weasels.
Hillary, Nancy, Chelsea.. where are you now that we need you?
Friends don't let friends use nailguns.
But.. only you…
Crud.. I couldn’t help myself... :-)
nice rumour. the ECB is based in Frankfurt, Germany. if the ECB would buy USTs directly, it would not be a "mistery buyer". if it would do it indirectly, it would do it through several available channels, including all the national banks that are it's members. yet if it would wish to do it more secretly, it would do it... wait a moment. I'm missing the motive, here. Why should the ECB buy all those USTs?
I think Pladizow (quoted from Casey Research) has it correctly: it's eastern money, from Russia or China or both. and EuroClear is a growing exchange
meanwhile it could be the FED, in order to offset the tapering
the EU has no official capital, btw, just seats of institutions, mostly in Brussels, but also in Strasbourg, Frankfurt, etc.
stop thinking of the EU as "a copy of the US", it isn't, except in the most disinformative propaganda from both eurofederalists and euroskeptics
I'd say it's the EU buying. finally paying back the Fed for most of the bailout money that went over in 09.
European collateral sucks. They need treasuries as collateral
..."meanwhile it could be the FED, in order to offset the tapering"..
This is my guess..
this way the foolish americans (and the rest of the fools who remain being fooled) will actually believe them when they say they are tapering.
Personally I think theres more money goin around than that 55bn (or whatev they "say") its tapered down to.
But then, ..who the FLlCK am I?
meanwhile it could be the FED....
Ghordius
ding...ding..ding......we have a winna
and what exactly is the ECB using to buy all these? It's Yellen with Belgium as a proxy
"But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation."
--Ben Diocletian Bernankodus
Just replace U.S. with EU/ECB, and dollars with Euros, and U.S. Government with EU Committee, and then re-quote this as if it were Draghi's own words...
...and...
...Voila!
Pretty simple, Fed does currency swap buying printed euros with printed dollars, ECB buys treasuries with those printed dollars. Fed has more euros on its balance sheet (if they even show up on the balance sheet), ECB has more treasuries on their balance sheet.
Why are they doing it? Because currency swap doesn't count as QE. They can maintain the taper ruse while maintaining a market for treasuries.
I think we'll see more of this. Fed is the only real buyer of treasuries anymore but they have to maintain the illusion other people are buying them, and people will if Fed provides the dollars
Since 08 we've been amazed how far Fed will go maintaining the illusion everything is ok.
It works till it doesn't. Till people get tired of Fed games and abandon the dollar, which is starting to happen now.
I don't buy the theory that the ECB is involved. if you look a bit more closely, you'll find that the whole ECB thing is built for the purpose of not drowning in USTs, from it's inception
the whole premise of this theory is that a secret FX swap is going on between the FED and the ECB. and that is very, very difficult
now, if you were talking about a secret deal between the FED and select eurozone NCBs... that would be a different thing
much more likely: the FED operating through the Bank of England and/or the BIS
In a secret email just released, it now becomes known that the bonds are being bought by the mysterious Nelley Esiuol Tenaj, Sultan of Khazaristan.
When the Bald Beard said a taper would not result in rising rates some of us knew the fix was in.
This is part of it. Audit the Fed.
Burn the fed, hang the congress. Yeah I mean you too, NSA.
Fuck the Fed, Fuck you bernanke, Fuck you Yellen and fuck the ECB
You must be young to want all that sex.
Especially if he wants to do Yellen. Yikes.
yes sir, rate must head lower or this whole ponzi comes undone. why is this shocking to anyone? usJaPAN
Back door Bennie, eh, I mean back door Yellow