Yen soars against U.S. dollar in aftermath of worst disaster in country's recent history

Japanese Tsunami to Hit U.S. Treasury

Japan - second largest holder of U.S. Treasury notes - expected to sell some to pay for damages

HAIKU, Maui, Mar 16 - Who says you're safe from tsunamis if you live deep inland?  The U.S. treasury officials are quaking in their boots as they awaits a tsunami of sell orders from the Japanese holders. And the yen is rising faster against the U.S. dollar than the radiation at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"The yen reached its strongest level since 1995 versus the dollar as risk of radiation leaks from crippled nuclear plants in Japan added to speculation insurers and investors will redeem overseas assets to pay for damages," the Bloomberg newswires reported this morning.  The Dow also plummeted 242 points.

Surprised to see the Japanese currency soar and the dollar drop in the wake of a natural disaster in Japan?  You shouldn't be.  That's another downside of globalization.  What goes around, comes around. Quickly. If even something happens on the other side of the globe, it reverberates all around like a sound wave around a bowl, and is heard the loudest at the weakest point.  Washington, DC, in this case. 

Seven years ago, we warned about a "Sellout of America" (Oct 2004, and Foreign Holders Increase Their U.S. Stakes (Mar 22, 2005) - see the charts). At the time, Japan was the largest foreign holder of U.S. treasuries.  China was second.  Now, the order is reversed.  But both countries have increased their U.S. holdings since then.  China's has actually nearly quadrupled them to $1,155 billion as of Jan 2011.  Japan is now second with $886 billion.  The U.K. is a distant third with $278 billion (click here to see all major foreign holders).  The much-hated OPEC cartel is only fourth. 

In a globally integrated world led by Washington and designed in New York, other countries in the game are "encouraged" (coerced) to buy U.S. treasury notes with profits they make from investments of U.S.-based multinationals in their economies.  That's a price of membership in the Globalist Club.  They are told that globalization is a scheme in which everybody wins.  Well, at least the large banks and multinationals who invented the scheme are supposed to.

Until something goes wrong.  Which is always the case in man-made designs.  Just as at the Fukushima nuclear plant at the moment.  Or in the sub-prime crises in 2007-2008.  That's when yesterday's heroes and "visionaries" scatter around like rats before a flood looking for safety in public bailouts.

Globalization has been rammed down the people's throats by Washington and other governments around the world for decades.  But it has accelerated since the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.  Even though most western societies claim to be democratic, the people were never asked if that's something they wanted.  Nor given a chance to understand the risks of globalization. 

We have written about them many times in the last two decades.  It may be worth your while to (re)read some of them at this writer's business and geopolitical web sites (Annex Research and Truth in Media):

Also check out... Gouging the American Consumer; Squeezing the Consumer Dry (Greed Was the Fuel That Drove Both Bankers, Govts & Oilmen to Try to Squeeze Blood Out of Stone - American Consumer); The Great Divide Widens (The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer in most developed countries – latest OECD study, Oct 2008); Wall Street's Financial Terrorism (a 1997 Chronicles Magazine column that's as current today as it was when it was written); Just Say NO to Greed - Killer of Dreams! (Mar 2008) and Just Say No to Greed 2 (Oct 2008)

Also, “Plutocrats of the New World Order,” Mar 1997; “Demo Farce and the American Century,” Nov 1996; “The Great Wall Street Hoover,” Nov 1997; “The Great American Divide,” Jan 1998; “Wiping Out the Middle Class,:” May 1998; “When Will Wall Street Bubble Burst?”, Aug 1998; etc.