US Unveils an Even Newer New $100 Bill

The new $100 US bill will go into circulation on February 10, 2011.

It is being put forward as a new form of currency with stronger anti-counterfeiting measures to help stem the tide of non-official monetary expansion.

I suspect at some point it will facilitate a 'recall' of the old notes, as a means of combating cash and carry businesses and money laundering. It will also seek to unhinge cash hoarding overseas tied to the drug trade.

It has not been announced if these bills will be carrying an expiration date to insure freshness.

Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner will be auctioning the crayons he used to sign his name to the bill on eBay to help defray the national debt. His handle is 2RB-O-TimEE.

New Money Homepage

Wall Street Journal
U.S. Unveils New $100 Bill
By
DARRELL A. HUGHES
April 21, 2010

WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke unveiled a new $100 bill equipped with two new security features.

The bill will go into circulation Feb. 10, 2011.

The Fed, along with the Treasury Department, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the U.S. Secret Service, "continuously monitor the counterfeiting threats" for each denomination and redesign decisions are made based on those threats, Mr. Bernanke said.

"This job has become more complex in recent years as technology advances and U.S. dollar flows expand and increase," he added.

The bill—the highest denomination of all U.S. notes—circulates widely around the world, with circulation in the past 25 years growing to $890 billion from $180 billion.

About two-thirds of all $100 notes circulate outside the U.S.; Mr. Bernanke said the agencies must ensure people around the world are aware of the design change. Over the next several months, officials at the agencies will work to educate cash handlers,
consumers and others about the design and explain how to use its security features.

The 6.5 billion or so $100 notes in circulation now will remain legal tender, Mr. Bernanke said.

The new bill's security features include a blue 3-D Security Ribbon on the front of the note that contains images of bells and 100s, which move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note, according to joint release from the agencies.

Another security feature is the "Bell in the Inkwell" image that changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it appear and disappear within the inkwell. (For more on the redesigned note and its features, visit www.newmoney.gov.)

"As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we're staying ahead of counterfeiters," Mr. Geithner said.

The new design for the $100 note retains three effective security features from the previous design: the portrait watermark of Benjamin Franklin, the security thread, and the color-shifting numeral 100.

The Financial Oligarchy in the US

If you do nothing else this week, read the transcript or watch this video.

I have a serious difference of opinion with the speakers with regard to Robert Rubin and his role, but they make up for it with their description of Jamie Dimon as close to the White House and one of the most dangerous men in America today.

And I thought it was interesting that Simon Johnson would say openly that the ONLY Senator who is speaking the truth plainly is Ted Kaufman from Delaware.

Other than that they are substantially putting out a very sound and realistic view of the root of the problems that created the financial crisis, and what requires to be done to rebalance the system and create a sustainable recovery.

BILL MOYERS: And you say that these this oligarchy consists of six megabanks. What are the six banks?

JAMES KWAK: They are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.

BILL MOYERS: And you write that they control 60 percent of our gross national product?

JAMES KWAK: They have assets equivalent to 60 percent of our gross national product. And to put this in perspective, in the mid-1990s, these six banks or their predecessors, since there have been a lot of mergers, had less than 20 percent. Their assets were less than 20 percent of the gross national product.

BILL MOYERS: And what's the threat from an oligarchy of this size and scale?

SIMON JOHNSON: They can distort the system, Bill. They can change the rules of the game to favor themselves. And unfortunately, the way it works in modern finance is when the rules favor you, you go out and you take a lot of risk. And you blow up from time to time, because it's not your problem. When it blows up, it's the taxpayer and it's the government that has to sort it out.

BILL MOYERS: So, you're not kidding when you say it's an oligarchy?

JAMES KWAK: Exactly. I think that in particular, we can see how the oligarchy has actually become more powerful in the last since the financial crisis. If we look at the way they've behaved in Washington. For example, they've been spending more than $1 million per day lobbying Congress and fighting financial reform. I think that's for some time, the financial sector got its way in Washington through the power of ideology, through the power of persuasion. And in the last year and a half, we've seen the gloves come off. They are fighting as hard as they can to stop reform.

The Financial Oligarcy in the US - Bill Moyer's Journal

US Dollar Very Long Term Chart

"A sentiment of trust in the legal money of the State is so deeply implanted in the citizens of all countries that they cannot but believe that some day this money must recover a part at least of its former value. To their minds it appears that value is inherent in money as such, and they do not apprehend that the real wealth, which this money might have stood for, has been dissipated once and for all.

This sentiment is supported by the various legal regulations with which the Governments endeavor to control internal prices, and so to preserve some purchasing power for their legal tender. Thus the force of law preserves a measure of immediate purchasing power over some commodities and the force of sentiment and custom maintains, especially amongst peasants, a willingness to hoard paper which is really worthless...

If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer."

John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, NY, 1920, p. 239-40

SP Futures, NDX Futures, US Dollar, No Sell Signals Yet

The big drop in the SP 500 last Friday triggered by the Goldman fraud charges was not confirmed at all by the NDX.

The SP 500, rightly or wrongly, is where much of the market manipulation of stocks is said to occur. It is a lead index for us, but we watch the NDX along side it, and vice versa. A genuine change in trend must be confirmed before we would take positions in size against the prior trend.



Bullish sentiment is starting to roll over. It has not yet challenged a level that would signal a bearish reversal. It is enetered a period of consolidation and sideways chop. If it penetrates the second moving average band it would be a strong trend change signal.



The US Dollar as measured by the DX Index is in a consoldiation within its uptrend. It has not yet broken serious support to signal a change in trend.