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The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

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Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#121

Post by DenisM »

jonstokes wrote: post #32
s_q_b wrote: post #9

You can see from their reported figures that their U.S. treasury holdings are far too low for a sensible national portfolio. It's a pretty glaring hole, and you know that the money is going somewhere off the balance sheets. The question has always been how much U.S. debt exactly the Saudi's hold. This is an interesting historical anecdote, but it doesn't provide any information about the size of the debt, other than…

A few years ago I read a good book on the collapse of the USSR (can't remember the title, too lazy to go back and find it right now). One of the major factors that the author identified was glasnost ("transparency"), which I'm old enough to remember being talked about on the news at the time. Basically, his thesis was that it was the transparency, after a generation of buildup of really nasty official secrets, that u…

You're underestimating the fact that the Soviet economy was essentially bankrupt. The high oil prices hiked up by the oil embargo became addictive, but having subsequently collapsed caused huge withdrawal syndrome. Agriculture was underperforming for decades to a staggering degree, in the last few years the food was rationed and there was international food aid sent to the country.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#122

Post by mahyarm »

dkksfj wrote: post #42
s_q_b wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the United States and Great Britain have similar, but not identical interests in the Middle East. Their intelligence operatives are almost preternaturally good (or at least seem that way due to their extremely precise knowledge of the Middle East.) And unlike American intelligence officers, they have a much smaller risk of "going native." American officers are rotated every few years to prevent this effect, whil…

im not surprised. every (out of 10 or so) brit ive met overseas and had a good chat with out over the last 3 years of being an expat has been a neurotic and/or belligerent asshole whereas most of the americans (out of 20) were able to communicate and assimilate with the local culture. its become such a pattern that i wont even speak english to a person with a british accent anymore. quite a few of them are just looki…

Depends on your expat crowd and reason. The british expats to NYC and SF are usually educated H1B immigrant types and are very pleasant people.

The expat who goes to south east asia to retire on their blue collar pension might be a different kind of person.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#123

Post by wavefunction »

travmatt wrote: post #117
SixSigma wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Swinging the election toward a hawkish demagogue with no knowledge of foreign policy At this point that sounds like either of them.

Hillary is a lot of things, but inexperienced in foreign policy's a something she's not.

Of course one must note that experience in foreign policy may not be as important as the outcomes achieved during that experience.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#124

Post by CWuestefeld »

fyhhvvfddhv wrote: post #107
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was does the debt force you to do other than hold a job? Heaven forbid. Nobody forced you to take money. If anything it's a coup for politicians who want to push debt forgiveness as one of their platforms. Get everyone into debt and then offer forgiveness for votes.

The economy is circular. The money created through the loan benefits the entire economy, going from hand to hand. you don't consume money or burn them. Then its unfair to burden one group or say one country (like Greece) to have to pay through the nose for the activity that everybody benefits from. This is basic macro-economics. The root cause of debt slavery and financial troubles we have can be solved by separating…

We've got piles of people with degrees in Studies, working as waiters and waitresses. The money that was spent housing and feeding them as students for 4+ years, paying the professors and administrators, could have been used more productively in some other pursuit. As you note, it's not quite equivalent to burning the money. But it's still a net loss, and given its size, it's not insignificant.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#125

Post by travmatt »

njloof wrote: post #105
s_q_b wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a theory that Perestroika and Glasnost were responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union, but to me that seems unlikely. The Soviet Union was bound to collapse, because it's mandate, by definition, was limitless expansion of communism. When the government could no longer coordinate production, Perestroika and Glasnost were last-ditch efforts to bring the Soviet Union more in line with Western norms. Unfo…

> The United States doesn't have that style of federation. Its provinces are held together by a common national identity in voluntary assembly, not a single nation presiding over others by raw force. Don't say that within earshot of the American South.

After the civil war the southern states voluntarily rejoined the union

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#126

Post by travmatt »

wavefunction wrote: post #123
travmatt wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hillary is a lot of things, but inexperienced in foreign policy's a something she's not.

Of course one must note that experience in foreign policy may not be as important as the outcomes achieved during that experience.

The Iranian nuclear deal?

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#127

Post by dayaz36 »

akamaka wrote: post #60
arethuza wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it a good few years back and found it interesting although I was slightly skeptical about to what degree the conspiracies described existed outside of the author's head. However, being older and somewhat more cynical (particularly after binge reading about the UK involvement in the Iraq and Afghan Wars) I do wonder if I should read this again - are there any materials out there that support his claims?

I also read the book, and what he describes is pretty much classic, straightforward bribery of foreign officials. There's a lot of embellishment by the author for the sake of hinting at broader conspiracies he didn't personally witness, and to aggrandize his own role in the matter.

I read the book and it didn't seem like it was embellished in anyway.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#128

Post by Sone7 »

rqebmm wrote: post #111
narrator wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about debt is that it's looked at as a fundamental force of nature and not from a political economic relationship. The debt is owed to someone. Someone, somewhere is getting the interest payments. The duty of a debtor to pay the lender is enforced politically. The creation of fiat currency is controlled by the central bank, etc. The Chinese realize this. On a political basis, they regularly buy up and…

> hence austerity in the form of government bailouts. I don't follow your point here. "Austerity" and "government bailout" are antithetical.

Am fairly sure he meant the government bailouts of banks. There's been quite a few recently.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#129

Post by dpc59 »

aedron wrote: post #17

The massive issuance of U.S. Dollar debt to Saudi Arabia, as a result of the deal mentioned in the OP, coincided perfectly with the abolition of the gold standard (the dollar being linked to physical gold reserves) [1]. So right from the start, the U.S. was purchasing oil with pieces of paper with no guaranteed value of any sort. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

The ability the US has to assure people that you'll be able to buy oil with USD through military bullying of OPEC countries is a pretty good guaranteed value.

Re: The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Treasury Holdings

#130

Post by int_19h »

hackuser wrote: post #97
dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we should be demanding heads on pikes. This has very real implications for Hillary Clinton's election chances as well. The Clintons have been supporters of the Saudis for some time now and have accepted Saudi government money through the Clinton Foundation. https://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors?category=%241... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/hillary-clinton-... There is no reason the U.S…

> There is no reason the U.S. should be allies with the House of Saud. There is a very good reason: 1) The US needs a stable oil supply 2) The US needs global stability, for which the world needs a stable oil supply. 3) A stable oil supply requires a stable Persian Gulf region. 4) Leverage and influence with the most powerful nation in the Persian Gulf (with the possible exception of Iran, an enemy of the U.S.), is v…

And why is Iran an enemy of US?
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