$135 billion in US bonds seized in Italy -- smuggling or counterfeit?

[GSH]

Only idiots believe that.




That is so obviously sarcasm if anyone needed it blue to figure it out... that person is an idiot. Yeah, I went there. WHOOT.

HA!

You made me laugh.


Sometimes things happen that give you a little bit of hope.

[Winehole23]

I don't have links.

Look, I'll admit that I was worried about the possibility of some country trying to quietly dump a bunch of our debt, even though it was probably just fear-mongering. I couldn't find any good sources of info, so I asked a bond trader at the money management firm we use. I called a friend from college who has a handfull of Series-whatever licenses. There was no way I could find to verify the actual news stories, but I at least wanted to try and understand how things work. I really didn't have any experience with billion-dollar bonds, if you know what I mean.

I offered the little bit I was able to learn, take it or leave it. Basically it was along the lines of what RandomGuy said. Legitimate sellers just don't go around cold-calling, or carrying the actual paper in their briefcase. But if there really is/was something big and sinister going on, there likely wouldn't be any trustworthy sources with links explaining it.

I appreciate the reply. Thanks for the background, sketchy though it is.

And I'm dead serious about all the polarizing rhetoric being the biggest thing protecting the bad guys.

How so?

[GSH]

I appreciate the reply. Thanks for the background, sketchy though it is.



How so?

I wrote three different long responses to that question. I looked over each one and said, "That part's just gonna piss him off." I'm really not in the mood to fight. Maybe I'll take a shot at it tomorrow.

Let me say this much. I can't line up with the Occupy people - but I would still like to see a (figurative) flame-thrower taken to a lot of the bull in the financial markets. I don't buy the extreme views of global warming - but that doesn't mean that I don't see the need for us to develop and use alternative sources of energy. (Sorry about the triple negative.) I don't think we can keep leaving our borders wide open, and allow an average of 1,500 people per day (for 20 years) - but our best friends in SA swam across the border, and I stood godfather to their kids (actually, padrino).

People who disagree with us aren't automatically monsters, or bigots, or ignorant. And I'm guilty of getting sucked into that version of things, too. And while people are out pissing on each other, the ones who are really doing the most damage get to keep doing what they do.

There. That's my fourth re-write. And it probably got long enough to piss you off about something, too. But I swear I wasn't trying.

[Winehole23]

what part of that is supposed to piss me off?

[Winehole23]

People who disagree with us aren't automatically monsters, or bigots, or ignorant. And I'm guilty of getting sucked into that version of things, too. And while people are out pissing on each other, the ones who are really doing the most damage get to keep doing what they do.

"ideological mystification"