– Russia Dumps 20% Of Its Treasury Holdings As Mystery “Belgium” Buyer Adds Another Whopping $40 Billion (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2014):
Back in mid-March, there was a brief scare after the start of the Ukraine conflict, when Fed custody holdings plunged by a record $104.5 billion (if promptly bouncing back the following week), leading many to believe that Russia may have dumped its Treasurys, or at least change its bond custodian. We noted that we wouldn’t have a definitive answer until the May TIC number came out to know for sure how much Russia had sold, or if indeed, anything. Moments ago the May TIC numbers did come out, and as expected, Russia indeed dumped a record $26 billion, or some 20% of all of its holdings, bringing its post-March total to just over $100 billion – the lowest since the Lehman crisis.
But as shocking as this largely pre-telegraphed dump was, it pales in comparison with what Zero Hedge first observed, is the country that has quietly and quite rapidly become the third largest holder of US paper: Belgium. Or rather, “Belgium” because it is quite clear that it is not the country of Begium who is engaging in this unprecedented buying spree of US paper, but some account acting through Belgian custody.
This is how we explained it last month:
… 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!Make that an unprecedented $381 billion because as we just learned “Belgium” bought another $40 billion in March!
Curiously, this happened as Japan sold $10 billion in TSYs, and as China remained unchanged. Further, foreign official accounts actually declined from $4.069 trillion to $4.054 trillion, which means this is what the US Treasury would classify as a “Private” buyer.
So to summarize, of the total $60 billion increase in foreign Treasury holdings, which rose from $5.89 trillion to $5.95 trillion, “Belgium” accounted for two thirds, most likely doing the purchases under the guise of a “private”, unofficial account!
And once again, it is Belgium in “”, because whoever is buying through the tiny European country, whose GDP is just double its reported total TSY holdings, is neither its government nor its people.
The question remains: who? Who has bought a whopping $200 billion in Treasurys using Belgium as a proxy since October?
You are spot on in your observation it cannot actually be Belgium in control of these funds…..nearly 3X what they actually show in their GDP. Belgium nearly went broke two years ago, and there is no way (as you point out) they could be the US treasury third largest holder. It is impossible.
This reminds me of when Jay Gould cornered the gold market in 1871. Nothing is as it seems. Evidently, there is a bad play coming thanks to no regulations or ethics in our financial systems. This ought to make any thinking person very nervous.
If Russian holdings of US treasuries are down 20% (there is $5 trillion in total foreign holdings of US debt), who is buying it? China sure isn’t, they are in worse condition than the US, Japan sure isn’t, they are struggling to keep afloat…….what or who is it?
To whom could Russia dump $40 Billion in treasuries? We know it isn’t Belgium.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts wrote about this recently
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/12/fed-great-deceiver-paul-craig-roberts/
Vlad is trying so hard for us all, but the jew led USA is relentless in its efforts to start a war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38498.htm
Thank you, grochef. This has me more upset than anything else I have read……the portend of this is grave, and very serious. The fall of the US dollar means the fall for millions, many of whom are totally unaware of what having the world reserve standard as your currency can mean. A currency collapse is a really bad idea, but these greedy bastards in control don’t care, it is all about grabbing all the cash on the planet and having it ruled by just a few people.
Think about it. What nation is financially stable and big enough to run things? There are a few billionaires who are very ambitious……..who have more money than many nations………it is a very scary thought. A revival of the royal families based on financial worth is a terrifying one.
What nations are out there that could pick up world reserve currency status? You saw my last post, Russia is just starting to rebuild (by a billionaire), China lies about everything, and their debt rate is higher than any nation in the world, they even lie about their GDP…..cannot trust them. The US…….????? The Euro is nearly bankrupt because so many nations joined with them using Enron Accounting, showing far more wealth than they have In fact. What about a basket of middle eastern nations? Or?
A few Billionaires or even worse, corporations which is what some of them openly advocate.
That would be insufferable, we don’t need the world run by greedy guts, they would destroy all social and educational programs; that is the difference between corporate and government. Corporate is all about the bottom line, governments are about the people. Both are equally needed. Who wins? We need both.
A few billionaires?
If we slide down to a corporate system, rather than another nation, we are screwed, and chaos will ensue. What currency would we use? The questions are endless, and the room for corruption wide open.
We need some strong credible folks, not more greedy corporations or people.