Getting Ready for Bernanke
A news story has been circulating that a man was busted carrying counterfeit $1 Billion dollar bills..
- The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw: there is no such thing as a billion-dollar bill.
US Customs agents in California say they found 250 bogus billion-dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling.
Tekle Zigetta, 45, pleaded guilty to three federal counts of trying to bring cash, fake bills and a fake $100,000 gold certificate into the United States in January.
Further investigation led agents to a West Hollywood apartment where they found the stash of yellowing and wrinkled one billion-dollar bills with an issue date of 1934 and bearing a picture of President Grover Cleveland.
"You would think the $1 billion denomination would be a giveaway that these notes are fake, but some people are still taken in," James Todak said, a secret services agent involved in the probe.
Comments (12)
Pete Canning
While I am certainly no fan of central banks or central bankers, I fail to see how Bernanke has been any worse than any other central banker to the point that we ought to "get ready." Doomsday predictions, and gross overstatement don't tend to add to one's credibility.
Published: March 19, 2006 9:23 AM
Don Lloyd
Pete,
While I am certainly no fan of central banks or central bankers, I fail to see how Bernanke has been any worse than any other central banker to the point that we ought to "get ready." Doomsday predictions, and gross overstatement don't tend to add to one's credibility.
Given his short term as a central banker to this point, it would seem to be damning with faint praise indeed to say that he hasn't been any worse than any other central banker.
Bernanke's problem will be that his undoubted strong level of economic knowlege and accomplishment is unlikely to be tempered by any doubt that what he knows might be wrong. With all of Greenspan's faults, he at least had a written record of his past knowlege of economic concepts that could not be expressed or followed for political reasons, in the unlikely event that he might have desired to do so.
Regards, Don
Published: March 19, 2006 12:30 PM
Robert Blumen
Mr. Canning,
Bernanke has a reputation as an advocate of bizarre forms of inflationism, including dropping money from helicopters and the monetization of more or less unlimited amounts of public and private sector debt. I did a piece on this here. I can't think of other central bankers who are such outspoken advocates of such methods.
-Robert
Published: March 19, 2006 3:35 PM
xteve
What do they mean by some people being "taken in" by fake billion dollar bills? How could one possibly pass a bill like that? Did he use one for cabfare & get $999,999,990 in change?
Did he use four or five of them to buy a one-bedroom house in California?
Published: March 19, 2006 10:01 PM
Pete Canning
I read the "helicopter commander" speech. No where does he advocate dropping money from a helicopter in that speech. If that speech is your evidence you don't have much of case.
As to being "outspoken" so what? Does the fact that he is not a bold faced liar like Greenspan make him more dangerous?
Published: March 20, 2006 5:35 PM
averros
Pete -- the "dropping money from a helicopter" is an idiom for distributing new money to general population in some supposedly equitable manner.
Published: March 20, 2006 5:47 PM
Robert Blumen
Mr. Cannning,
The helicopter speech is not my only evidence. In the article that I linked to above, I cite 14 sources on inflation from the Fed, about half of which are by Bernanke. One of the pieces, called "money rains" is posted on the Fed's web site with a picture of a helicopter.
Robert Blumen
Published: March 20, 2006 7:56 PM
Pete Canning
"Pete -- the "dropping money from a helicopter" is an idiom for distributing new money to general population in some supposedly equitable manner."
Yeah, I caught that.
"One of the pieces, called "money rains" is posted on the Fed's web site with a picture of a helicopter."
This article you speak of seems to have been written by Jim Dolmas and Evan F. Koenig. Maybe we should be celebrating that neither Jimmy nor Evan didn't get appointed?
It would be one thing if you claimed that Bernanke should be dealt with like a common criminal, that logical people could agree with. As to hyper inflation, I don't think it is in the cards.
Published: March 20, 2006 8:33 PM
Ken Hagler
When I read this story what struck me was the absurdity of arresting someone for "counterfeiting" something that doesn't exist. Well, it gets better. This morning I went into the local Post Office, also in Los Angeles, and what did the clerk have taped to his cubicle? That's right, a billion-dollar bill. Curiously, no SS agents where on hand to arrest their fellow government employee.
Published: March 24, 2006 3:53 PM
Peter
Pete Canning says "As to hyper inflation, I don't think it is in the cards". Well, how do you define "hyper-inflation" (as opposed to just plain old "inflation")? Someone told me it was hyper-inflation if the inflation rate was in the double digits. In which case, if you look past the government's faulty CPI, it's not just in the cards, it's here!
Published: March 24, 2006 9:47 PM
Peter N.
"..how do you define hyper inflation?" I agree with Murray Rothbard's brilliant definition; "Hyper-inflation occurs when the public realizes that the government is bent on inflation, and decides to evade the inflationary tax on its resources by spending money as fast as possible while it still retains some value." Hyper-inflation is not a particular rate of inflation. Hyper-inflation occurs when the masses acquire the unfortunate knowledge that they've been duped. Someday soon, when the majority of people decide to pay enormous penalties to "prematurely" cash out of their IRA's for the sake of buying gold, you'll know that Hyper-inflation has arrived in the United States.
Published: January 24, 2007 9:59 PM
Robert Blumen
Yes, hyper-inflation is when money demand drops to zero while money supply is increasing.
Published: January 25, 2007 11:05 AM