[RonMN]

What can I say about the website name? I google, therefor I read

I can't give it any more or less credibility because "catholic" is in the name...they didn't seem to have any religious spin in the article, mostly quoting "AsiaNews" and other sources...But I did like the picture posted of the actual bonds. I thought I would post half the article just incase it vanishes soon.

I thought it was odd that turner was arrested right after the article, but nobody else was mentioning it...I thought I had just missed something.

[mattduke]

The U.S. Secret Service is examining more than $100 billion of U.S. government bonds confiscated in northern Italy in August, just two months after $134 billion of allegedly fake securities were seized in a nearby town.

bloomberg

[Sixstrings]

OH BROTHER..

Ok, ANOTHER $100 billion in US bonds have been seized in Italy:

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Secret Service is examining more than $100 billion of U.S. government bonds confiscated in northern Italy in August, just two months after $134 billion of allegedly fake securities were seized in a nearby town.

The Secret Service is analyzing whether the bonds taken in August may be counterfeit, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Rome. Italy’s financial police in Varese, north of Milan, arrested two individuals carrying the securities in a briefcase, according to a person involved in the case.

The two men currently are in custody as prosecutors in the town of Busto Arsizio carry out their investigation, the person said. The seized notes include securities with face values of $500 million and $1 billion, Italian daily MF reported today, without saying where it got the information.

“There must be a well-organized group behind these alleged crimes,” Fabio Polimeni, a Milan lawyer specializing in counterfeiting cases, said.

Italian authorities seized U.S. treasuries on June 4 with a face value of more than $134 billion from two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland. The two men later disappeared and the case is still under investigation. The U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by the men were fake, a U.S. Treasury spokesman said June 18.

“As financial markets become more sophisticated, creative and bigger, we can expect criminal activity to go with it and it’s happening everywhere,” Livia Oglio, a Milan lawyer, said. “The amount seized is phenomenal.”

Since the beginning of the year the police at border stations in Italy have seized 1.7 million euros of genuine money and bonds, and have confiscated more than 100 million euros of bonds that have been determined to be false, according to an Italian finance police statement in July.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... X0BWHToC1g

Regarding the first bond smuggling mystery, all Bloomberg can say is "The two men later disappeared and the case is still under investigation." Ok.. either this is a cover-up, or nobody practices journalism anymore. What we know is these two Japanese didn't just "disappear," they were released by the Italians. Nobody has yet answered the question as to why the US and Italian authorities let them go.

[hardtootell-2]

Regarding the first bond smuggling mystery, all Bloomberg can say is "The two men later disappeared and the case is still under investigation." Ok.. either this is a cover-up, or nobody practices journalism anymore. What we know is these two Japanese didn't just "disappear," they were released by the Italians. Nobody has yet answered the question as to why the US and Italian authorities let them go.

OR... they are sleepin with the fishes.

[patience]

This bond thing stinks to high heaven! My bet is that the bpnds are quite real, and the US is letting the Japanese opt out of some of them to shuffle around the cost of financial unwinding. I can't think of a reason for this to be going on in Italy, unless it IS because there is a big Swiss gold supplier nearby.

TWICE in a few months??? C'mon, now. Pull the other leg a while.

[Mesuge]

Well, if you apply sort of pawn shop deal arithmetics to it, as we should given the creepy circumstances of this story, what's the current fair price for $1bln. bond of bankrupt former global empire? Certainly the nominal value it is not! Is it 5%, 15% more hah? I'd guess it might be a bit more since they directly dispatched some japanese guys and not just hired middleman of "western appearances"..

patience> yes, that's why Swizterland is still so popular in these circles, it takes just a short trip in CEOs limo from northern Italy, south Germany, France, if they don't want to fly there directly etc. And you don't have to deal in person with the more shady characters of tropical tax havens, the swiss will provide you with all inclusive service package for your global business needs.

[eXpat]

2010 is going to be painful for Italy
Italian banks fear crunch from Basel II

The warnings came as Standard & Poor’s listed 17 Italian banks at risk of a downgrade as the delayed effects of rising defaults start to hit home.

Giampaolo Galli, director-general of Italy’s business lobby Confindustria, said the economy could not withstand the shock of credit tightening if stricter rules start to bite next year as planned.
“We must convince the authorities that it is not only necessary to postpone the changes until 2011-2012 but also to soften them,” he told Italy’s financial paper Il Sole.

“There are going to be very serious difficulties. Firms have a great need for credit and they are going to reveal awful books for 2009, with the result that their access to credit will suffer,” he said.

Corrado Faissola, head of Italy’s banking federation ABI, said he had “serious concerns” over the new rules and called for the Bank of Italy to move with great care as it draws up enforcement plans.

German banks have also demanded a rethink on the new rules, predicting a serious crunch for small business over the coming months without a change of course.

Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said the move to tighten capital rules in the middle of a deep downturn was a grave error, comparing it to the worst follies of policy-makers during the Great Depression. He fears that such tightening may tip Europe and America into deflation next year.

Italy’s banks fared well during the financial crisis because they had little exposure to US toxic debt, and Italy largely avoided a property bubble. No lenders have required a state rescue. However, it can take three years for the damage to surface from losses on corporate loans. Few banks have made full provisions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6828508/Italian-banks-fear-crunch-from-Basel-II.html

[SKMia]

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[mattduke]

In an effort to crack down on widespread tax evasion, the government will ban the use of cash in transactions over 5,000 euros, lowering the ceiling from 12,500 euros, Tremonti's memo said

Get your wealth out of government money while you are able. Law is arbitrary. Buy physical metal and hide it from criminals, whomever they may be.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64N36720100524

[timmac]

Its basically that way here in America if you look around, I was in a new car dealership a while back and in the fiance room there was a sign posted that said any cash transactions with $10,000 cash or more will be reported to the FBI, In Vegas of all places where cash is King.

Reminds me of the old stories around here when folks that won a lot of cash at the casinos would go down East Sahara and buy a brand new Caddy at the dealership, Elvis always did this at least 2-3 times per year for his friends, always Cadillacs..

Those days are gone, even the casinos have basically gone cashless...

[Keith_McClary]

Try to buy a car or gold or open an investment account with cash.

I think you will find there are "Anti-Money Laundering" laws that require reporting of large transactions.

[ItalyRules]

I have been watching the last few weeks as you battled each other, calling each other Fascists as a perjoritive, without any clear understanding what Fascism is or was.

In Italy, Fascism was not Racist.

Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today. . . . National pride has no need of the delirium of race. ”
—Benito Mussolini, 1933

In Italy we had no concentration camps.

Under Mussolini, agrarian reforms were enacted that benefited small farmers. A national highway system was built. Unemployment was nearly eliminated. The economy shifted into high gear and a strong sense of national pride swept the country.

Corporations worked hand-in-hand with the government creating a positive business environment enriching the country.

It is commonly accepted that rule by committee does not work. Everyone accepts the old saying, "too many cooks spoil the stew."

From what I see of politics in the United States, both political parties are weak, sacrificing any opportunity for effective action on the altar of popular opinion.

Nothing gets done, even when there is a strong necessity for something to be done.

It seems to me the Republicans are backed by the true power in America, the corporations and the wealthy. Perhaps it is time to remove the velvet glove and show the iron gauntlet.

Liberty and Freedom are abstractions. Illusions covering the true state of affairs. The only power the masses have is that which you give them.

There is much to be done, and little time to do it. It will take a strong government with an iron will, to do what must be done.

Once effective actions are being taken, the country will improve and the people will benefit.

If Italy had remained neutral in the war, people would be singing Mussolini's praises today.

[Ludi]

It will take a strong government with an iron will, to do what must be done.

No, thanks.

[efarmer]

I know a German who was in the Hitler Youth. He also tells me everything was absolutely perfect until they decided to start the war, and that was just about the only mistake.

We all need a hobby, good luck with defending Fascism.

It just goes to show that people are fickle, you do almost everything correct and well, and then one little mistake, and people are shooting at you in Ethiopia and tearing your nation apart to drive the Germans back up the peninsula. Life is funny that way.

I always say if you can't make a good government, make excellent wine, food, art, and beautiful people.
Your nation indeed does that. You guys really know how to build a world class religion too!

[PrestonSturges]

Under Mussolini, agrarian reforms were enacted that benefited small farmers.

What an amazing coincidence!

I've never bothered to highlight it, but Mussolini, Hitler, and the GOP all make a big deal about the family farm.

[Plantagenet]

Godwin's law does not claim to articulate a fallacy; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons. "Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical" Godwin has written.

[PrestonSturges]

Godwin's law does not claim to articulate a fallacy; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons. "Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical" Godwin has written.

What part of "this is a thread about Fascism" don't you get?[/quote]

As the the saying goes "It isn't that you aren't right, you not even wrong."

You're not even making a token effort to make sense any more.

[eastbay]

Fascism. Fascism. Fascism. Hitler. Hitler. Hitler. This is really getting out of hand here.

Why? Why do liberals constantly offer so much free press to this interesting but anachronistic ideology? It's a very annoying and never ending drum beat. But why do they sing this twisted song so relentlessly? It must have something to do with justifying the well-known liberal bloodthirsty craving for killing and war.

Liberals are constantly screaming, "hey! Look how many 'they' killed. We're only killing half as many. We're sooooo much kinder and holier." Then they exaggerate into unbelievable phantasmagoria the fascist's killing while brushing aside and minimizing their own even sicker track record. Don't liberals realize that fewer and fewer are falling for their war-justifying lies? And fewer still want to hear their twisted fantasy of lies and exaggerated nonsense any longer.

With the entire wonderful universe of beautiful and interesting things to intelligently discuss, why focus on promoting fascism and thereby justifying your idiotic and ever-failing nation-shaping wars?

[Ibon]

With the entire wonderful universe of beautiful and interesting things to intelligently discuss, why focus on promoting fascism and thereby justifying your idiotic and ever-failing nation-shaping wars?

This is the question I ask myself about so many topics discussed. When you really and truly absorb the truth of your brief mortal existence, why give up so much sense of wonder and joy to dwell on the darker side of human nature? Even if the consequences are stormy and dark up ahead there is an attitude to approach this that embraces rather than fears. Even the consequences themselves of human overshoot and human hubris toward our biosphere are a wonder to behold! I am grateful and will be grateful if and when any of the five horses of the apocalypse take me down.

How about the fear of never having really lived?