Reporters and their editors (and the corporations that employ them) have the power to shape readers’ perceptions by, for instance, choosing what fact to put first in a story or which expert to quote in what context. But the most powerful tool is the simplest: the headline. Because many people read only that, and many others have their perception of an article shaped by the first words they see, this sentence fragment is frequently as important as everything that comes after.
Consider this, from the Associated Press:
Foreign Holdings of US Treasury Debt Hits Record
Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings in March to a record high.The Treasury Department said Thursday that total foreign holdings rose 1 percent to $5.95 trillion from $5.89 trillion in February.
China, the largest foreign buyer of Treasury debt, reduced its holdings by less than 0.01 percent to $1.27 trillion. Japan, the second-largest buyer, cut its holdings 0.8 percent to $1.2 trillion.
Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, major oil exporting nations and Caribbean countries involved in banking all increased their holdings. Meanwhile, Russia shed almost 21 percent of its holdings in March following international tensions over its move to annex part of Ukraine.
Russia controls $100.4 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities, or just 1.7 percent of all foreign holdings. The United States and Russia have imposed sanctions on each other after parts of the Crimean Peninsula with ethnic and political ties to Russia began an attempt to secede from Ukraine in late February.
Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities is expected to remain strong this year, aided by more borrowing certainty with a congressional agreement to suspend the debt limit until March 2015.
Now, let’s tease out a few facts:
Trading powers China and Japan cut their Treasury holdings, while superpower wannabe Russia dumped fully one-fifth of its dollar-denominated debt. Meanwhile, Belgium and Luxembourg and a few others more than made up the slack, enabling the Associated Press to open with a glowingly-positive message (foreign investors love dollars!).
The truth appears to be something else entirely. How could Belgium and Luxembourg (total combined population 12 million) buy enough US debt to offset Russia dumping 21% of its Treasuries? The answer is that it’s highly unlikely they would do this in a single month unless they’re part of an under-the-table deal through which Western powers are hiding the fact that major holders of dollars appear to be losing faith in the currency and/or bridling at US foreign policy arrogance.
So the cover-up is the real story, and a more honest headline would feature Belgium’s purchases and the reasons for this shift in dollar ownership. “Russia sells Treasuries while Belgium buys; analysts wonder why” would be both more honest and more provocative without being sensationalistic.
But of course it would also pose a difficult question, which is apparently no longer the corporate media’s job.
15 thoughts on "Amazingly Deceptive Headlines, Part 1"
The main deceit is within such false fear tactics such as “Breaking News: Iran to build a bomb”. Iran, a nation which has not blatantly attacked another nation in 300 years, while USA bombs the world away, including being the only nation using an atomic bomb. We are the warfare capitol of the world, arming the world to the teeth…right about now arming the Kurds, “ISIS” and other “terrorist” groups. USA has been sponsoring terrorism for decades. We give trillions to Israel for the “war effort”. Time to wake up, lighten up, and put money into the social good of our nation instead. Its NEVER been about “defense”.
Luxembourg is major banking center. They have the highest per capita income in the world. It’s most likely Russian corporations covertly buying back the Treasuries they dumped.
Jim Rickards interview with Keith McCulllough, one of the best I’ve seen in along time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7-u7Sd7Gk
U.S.A. collapses! Read all about it on your EMP-affected I-phones.
If you want to see what’s really going on with Belgium – read this:
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/dr-paul-craig-robertsdave-kranzler-the-feds-covert-qe/
That the Jewsmedia (defined below) peddles nothing but propaganda is not new information. Anyone with 3 active brain cells should be able to see the trickery, deception, misinformation, phony staged photos, and realize the truth. The key word is “should”. The reality is don’t, won’t, can’t.
As far as all the treasuries being bought by “Belgium”. Belgium the country isn’t the buyer of any of it. Belgian officials have already revealed that to calm public fears of the country being consumed by US junk paper. The “buyer” is a secret identity trading account being run by proxy from Washington. Instead of Treasury>FED account we have Treasury>Belgium account set up through a blind trust in Israel. That’s how it’s done. Bank secrecy laws block us from finding out the true account holder. But, buying $40 billion a month, it isn’t hard to figure out.
Jewsmedia (jUz’-mEE-dee-ya), noun
1) Mass media used to convey mis-information, lies & deception.
2) Any form of media promoting the political and economic agenda of special interest groups, particularly Jews.
3) A means of blocking alternative sources of facts or ideas, thereby preventing people from forming their own opinions at odds with those in control.
There is no greater power in the world today than that wielded by the manipulators of public opinion in America. There is no uncertainty about the form and employment of mass media as a weapon; for it is nothing but a weapon, and indeed a most terrifying weapon in the hands of those who use it. Essentially everything we know, or think we know, about events outside our own neighborhood or circle of acquaintances comes to us via our daily newspaper, our weekly news magazine, our radio, or our television. Our system of “education” focuses on turning the vast majority of people into mindless sheep with no ability to think for themselves or resist the political manipulators. The disastrous effects continue to grow.
You should make this a regular section on your site…. it’s AWESOME!
Yes…We need a mental screening device in our brains to sift the larger B.S. particles from the smaller B.S. particles…it’s all B.S. for the most part… where are the shovels? And our psyops education system is contributing to the problem in our younger generations.
The main deceit to me is in not mentioning that “Belgium” bought the vast majority of the Treasury bonds, and the purchases of Luxembourg, Switzerland, major oil exporting nations and Caribbean countries were negligible. Also, the editors probably hope that most readers don’t know that Brussells is the capital of Belgium and the headquarters of the EU. Disclosing that would have changed the message entirely.
But maybe the best news was left for last: “…more borrowing certainty with a congressional agreement to suspend the debt limit until March 2015.”
By the way, all of these numbers can be found at : http://www.treasury.gov/ticdata/Publish/mfh.txt
which shows the US Treasury foreign holdings for all the countries in the world. As you can see:
Country Nov. ’13 Mar. ’14 Feb. ’14
China 1316.7 1272.1 1272.9
Japan 1186.4 1200.2 1210.8
Belgium 200.6 381.4 341.2
Carribean 290.9 312.5 301.0
OPEC 236.2 247.4 243.8
Luxembourg 130.4 145.1 136.8
Russia 139.9 100.4 126.2
China, Japan, and especially Russia has been selling US Treasuries, and “Belgium” has bought 80% of the foreign purchases between Mar. ’14 and Nov. ’13.
Thank the Lordy Jamaica’s awash in all that ganja money and they’re buyin’ our debt cuz otherwise our goose is cooked. Haha, we’re so screwed.