Saudi Buying of U.S. Treasuries Has Soared Since Trump Election

(Bloomberg) – By now, President Donald Trump’s bromance with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is well documented. The platitudes and chummy photo-ops. The billions of dollars in U.S. arms sales. And, of course, the willingness to brush aside evidence implicating the crown prince in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But what’s gone largely unnoticed is just how enthusiastic the kingdom has been in snapping up America’s debt.

After aggressively culling its holdings of U.S. government debt for most of 2016, Saudi Arabia has amassed an even larger position since Trump’s election in November that year. Based on the latest reported figures, the nation nearly doubled its ownership of Treasuries to $177 billion. No major foreign creditor has ramped up its lending to the U.S. faster.

Coincidence? Perhaps. After all, you could probably marshal any number of plausible explanations for the timing of the oil-exporting nation’s buildup that don't involve some political quid pro quo. Rising petrodollar revenue. Risk aversion. A shift out of negative-yielding bonds. And considering how big the U.S. deficit has grown because of Trump’s tax cuts, the amounts involved won’t move the needle all that much when it comes to America’s financing needs.

Whatever the case may be, however, this much is clear: as Trump continues to defend Prince Mohammed in the face of growing criticism on a whole host of issues, from the Saudi-led war in Yemen to his alleged role in the gruesome killing of Khashoggi, the kingdom has everything to gain from appearing to lend financial support to its most important ally — even if it isn’t intentional. That's particularly true after talk surfaced in May that China, the largest foreign creditor to the U.S., might be considering the unlikely move of dumping its Treasuries to punish Trump over his trade war. (Though at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, the two countries declared a truce, at least for now.)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/saudi-buying-of-u-s-treasuries-has-soared-since-trump-election-1.1280844

Someone is 'in the know'…

>>6888641

Not sure how but I missed Armenia…

Armenia is in the midst of a significant transition following mass antigovernment protests and elections in 2018 that forced out an entrenched political elite. The new government has pledged to deal with long-standing problems including systemic corruption, opaque policymaking, a flawed electoral system, and weak rule of law.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN 2018:

Serzh Sargsyan, the country’s president since 2008, attempted to extend his rule in April by becoming prime minister under a new parliamentary system, prompting mass demonstrations across the country that led to his swift resignation and the parliament’s election of protest leader Nikol Pashinyan to replace him in May.

Ruling with an interim cabinet of deputies from his Yelq Alliance even as Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) continued to dominate the parliament, Pashinyan attempted to enact electoral reforms, combat corruption, and improve socioeconomic conditions.

Although the interim government was unable to pass electoral reforms, Pashinyan’s new My Step Alliance swept snap parliamentary elections in December, taking 70 percent of the vote. The new parliament was set to convene in early 2019.

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/armenia

https://www.apnews.com/Armenia

>>6888859

>Per Q drop

>What if Iran created a classified ‘satellite’ Nuclear facility in Northern Syria?

This why Armenia was important?

FBI director says bureau is investigating 5,000 terrorism cases across the world

In a startling disclosure, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that agents are conducting thousands of terror investigations around the world.

"Right now, as I sit here, we're currently investigating about 5,000 terrorism cases across America and around the world and about a thousand of those cases are homegrown violent extremists and they are in all 50 states," Wray said in his prepared testimony.

He said the threat of a large scale, big city attack still exists from groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS but homegrown violence is as prevalent as ever.

"National security remains the FBI's top priority and counterterrorism is still a paramount concern but that threat has changed significantly since 9/11," Wray said.

Wray said that homegrown terrorists (HVE) "self radicalize" at home and are influenced on social media by the global jihadist movement. They can also attack at a moment's notice.

"This HVE threat has created a whole new set of challenges with a much greater number, much greater volume of threats and each one of them with far fewer dots to connect and much less time to interrupt an attack," Wray continued.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-director-bureau-investigating-5000-terrorism-cases-world/story?id=58405019

I didn't hear him saying anything about 'white supremacists' but it is the talking point…