Russia Liquidated Nearly All of Its U.S. Treasury Securities

[applegrove]

https://politicalwire.com/2018/07/29/russia-liquidated-nearly-all-of-its-u-s-treasury-securities/

"SNIP..........


“The Russian government has sold off the vast majority of its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities for reasons that remain mysterious, in a dramatic move that experts are calling unprecedented,” the Daily Mail reports.

“A U.S. Treasury report released on July 18 shows that Russian holdings of Treasury securities declined by 84% between March and May, down to just $14.9 billion from March holdings of $96.1 billion.”

...........SNIP"

[Wounded Bear]

1. Stand by for the Trump Recession...

coming to small towns near you soon.

[democratisphere]

4. What do the russians know that we don't know,

and when did they know it?!

[catrose]

12. my first thought too

Makes me glad I sold mine too.

[Yavin4]

31. What don't they know?

They know everything thanks to this administration.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Yep.

I'd be very interested in what China is doing about their treasuries and other US debt.

[Squinch]

2. Last time Russia did something like that it was right before they annexed Crimea.

[lastlib]

34. Dumping a large amount of them is going to depress bond prices.

Could set off a chain reaction, and have a destabilizing effect in the financial markets. Put our economy in a downward spiral.

Or maybe they know the tRumpski gov't shutdown is coming, and there is a possible US default in the offing. That would be DEVASTATING to the global economy.

Either way, it's not good. -- --

[drray23]

3. They are preparing to invade Baltic states.

So, they are pulling their assets from the us banks in case they get frozen as part of sanctions the us congress could impose (since Trump may not).

[2naSalit]

5. THIS

[democratisphere]

6. Hope not!

WWIII.

[Blue_true]

19. With Trump in office? Not so sure about that.

But if Russia starts causing trouble in the Baltic states, and Trump does nothing, him and the Republican Party are done, if we can avoid shooting ourselves in the foot.

[Yavin4]

32. Nah, their base will support Trump and Putin on this

This is why they fixed 2016 for Trump. Putin probably told him about invading the Baltic states.

[uponit7771]

8. I wouldn't put it past him

[Igel]

15. Or they're doing it in anticipation of the sanctions

a (D) Congress might impose.

Or maybe they needed the money for a budget shortfall.

Or to avoid objections, "If the US is the evil empire, why do you have so much by way of investment in it?"

Or perhaps they simply found a better investment, as safe but with higher yield.

It might be that they're eschewing USD denominated securities to make a point.



We could just say, "We know they're going to be invading the Baltics. They're pulling money out of US securities? That's probably because they intend to invade the Baltics--it's evidence. Now we have evidence that they're going to invade the Baltics." But it's the assumption that provides the only reason for taking the fact as evidence ... for the assumption.

[Quixote1818]

18. You know they are itching to attack some place and with Trump in office

it's the perfect time to do it.

[Leghorn21]

7. Rep. Lieu commented on this earlier today:

The liquidation of US treasuries by Russia is interesting. If
Russia did this to leverage the US in some way, it failed. The
market shrugged. Why? Because Russia is a small economic
player, not even in the top ten. In fact, California alone has
nearly twice the GDP of Russia.

Link to tweet

[DFW]

9. Rep. Lieu beat me to it, but he is right. Big sum to one person, small chage for a major country

It's something like 500 billion rubles, so it might seem like all the money in the world in a Russian headline, but when even California is holding twice that amount, it doesn't seem so huge on a global scale. Makes for splashy headlines, though.

[Igel]

14. Not sure Cali's holding much in the way of US securities.

They're tax exempt, but if Cali's holding money in reserve it already has tax exempt status.

CalPERS might be holding some for retirees, but the politicians there like playing political signally games with their pensioners' money. (I know. I still have money with CalPERS.)

[Blue_true]

20. I tell you, Putin must have a Rep. Ted Lieu dartboard at home, because Rep. Lieu rakes Putin's

ass.

[Grasswire2]

10. Russia also had a HUGE show of military force parade/display today or yesterday

Trump must be drooling over the pageantry.

But the event was meant to show new weapons and capabilities to America and NATO

[doc03]

13. I would guess those "Russian holdings" are Putin's private stash nt

[oasis]

16. Take your rubles and your bought congressmen and go to hell. nt

[UTUSN]

17. *AND* this means *WHAT*?!1

[renegade000]

21. Not a vote of confidence in Trump, I think

Gives me a bit of hope, because my impression is Putin doesn't want these assets to be frozen. This would indicate that he thinks there's a reason why they might be frozen soon, which might be because he can see the whole conspiracy beginning to unravel.

[donkeypoofed]

22. Did Vlad give that money to his oligarchs?

Or he's gonna cut Spanky loose and he's not doing him any good anyway.

[Renew Deal]

23. They probably don't want their money caught up in another round or sanctions

[Anon-C]

24. Before they attack our power grid with Trump's help?

Pretty smart move.

[JDC]

25. They probably need the money

[roamer65]

26. The Russians have been stacking gold quite heavily.

Probably sold them off so they could buy gold at the current lower prices.

[rainin]

27. Perhaps it signals low confidence in republicans holding on to their majority.

Is putin afraid of the Democrats? Of Mueller?

[denbot]

28. Shitler has said multiple times that the US could and should default on debt.

The value of US Treasuries would implode, and we would be financially wounded for at least a decade.

I have no doubt that he would default on our debts during a government shutdown.

[Crash2Parties]

29. Hey, that's "Paid-off Shitler" (say it out loud if you need to)!

[Hoyt]

30. Might be anticipating big increases in interest rates. Who knows.

[triron]

33. Trump tipped off Putin.