POP QUIZ: Which Government Most Wants to Sell $134.5 Billion in the Black Market?
I don’t typically like spending a lot of time on stories that have more coverage by blogs than actual news outlets, but this one is really too juicy to pass up and it also continues our ongoing conversation about the dollar’s prominence as a global reserve currency. Two men were recently stopped by Italian authorities while trying to cross the border into Switzerland with a fake-bottomed suitcase containing $134.5 billion worth of US Treasury bonds. That’s right – billion with a B. Let’s take just a moment to review which of the United States’ various creditors even hold that much US debt. According to the latest data from the US Treasury Department, this is what we have to work with through April of this year:
China ~ $763.5 billion
Japan ~ $685.9 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers ~ $204.7 billion
OPEC ~ $189.5 billion
United Kingdom ~ $152.8 billion
Russia ~ $137 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama.
From the above list, which is the most likely to attempt smuggling undeclared $134.5 billion in treasuries across the Italian-Swiss border? Which is LEAST likely to attempt it? Got your guesses? No cheating! Answer after the jump.