Well, it's to the point now I just have to laugh.

When former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced - the day before 9/11 in fact - that the Pentagon was missing a mere $2,000,000,000,000, the story was buried by subsequent events. We now seem to have the Fed admitting that it cannot find $9,000,000,000,000:

Well, I'm not really surprised. These are banksters after all, that unique blend of fabulous incompetence, narcissism, and murderously cosmic ego that goes to make up the vast majority of that class.

But, as I contemplated this story, the oddity of the numbers once again struck me, for if one imagined all those dollars as electricity, then where in tarnation was the load end? Why weren't all these dollars showing up, long ago, somewhere, in the form of inflation. Then, more reflection on the numbers: the Japanese Bearer Bond scandal involved a mere $134,500,000,000 in spurious bearer bonds, but, oddly, that just happened to be the amount of money in the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) fund. Then, in Spain, near Barcelona, we had the apprehension of allegedly counterfeit bearer bonds, and US gold certificate banknotes denominated in $100,000 bills, to a sum of $10,000,000, all neatly banded in bands with the stamp of Chase Manhattan Bank, and all in allegedly counterfeit strongboxes of a Federal Reserve Branch bank. A scenario that, to this day, strikes me as odd in the extreme.

I mean, c'mon here: why go to the trouble of counterfeiting something so absurdly huge in denomination like $100,000 bills, and more absurdly, gold-backed bearer bonds denominated in units of $100,000,000 and $500,000,000, even if you're intending to sell them to a "mark" at a substantial discount. That would be like announcing your presence on the international counterfeit money market with a fanfare and timpani beneath trapeze artists and flashing neon signs. "Here I am! I'm counterfeiting sovereign debt instruments and endangering your national security! Come and get me!" Add to this that we're told the "counterfeiters" added to the fanfare and neon lights by counterfeiting Federal Reserve Branch bank strong boxes, which is like adding searchlights to the fanfare, timpani, trapeze artists, and flashing neon lights.

And of course, there's that fundamental problem that I mentioned a long time ago; no counterfeiting operation ever counterfeits seven dollar bills, i.e., counterfeiters do not counterfeit what does not exist as a real and legitimate instrument, a little fact that government denials of the existence of such instruments has yet to contend with by any plausible explanation.

So: total amount involved in the Spanish Bearer Bond episode? Well...lookee here: $2,000,000,000,000, the same amount that secretary Donald Rumsfeld could not account for.

Then there was the Italian Bearer Bonds Scandal.... similar flashing neon lights, fanfares, timpani, trapeze artists, searchlights, all proclaiming "Here I am! I'm forging your national sovereign debt instruments and calling into question you whole financial structure.... I'm counterfeiting things that don't exist. Come and get me!"

Total amount allegedly involved in the Italian Bearer Bonds episode? $6,000,000,000,000.

Add the three bearer bonds episodes amounts together, and we're beginning to approach that missing $9,000,000,000,000... actually, about $8,134,500,000,000 but what's a few hundred million here and there?

So....Rumsfeld announced the Pentagon was missing two trillion dollars... a few years later, that exact amount turns up in bearer bonds seized near Barcelona, Spain. (And what was it doing there?)

Maybe we just have to wait for the next Bearer Bonds Episode... What do you want to bet that the German BKA will seize $9,000,000,000,000 in gold backed Bearer Bonds in Hamburg, in a sting operation involving relatives of Hjalmar Schacht?

Of course, the Fed's missing nine trillion did not make the major lamestream media in the USA folks, so that means, this is one to watch.

See you on the flip side.