Bush Says Treasury Bonds Are “Worthless I.O.U.’s”
April 7th, 2005 | by Mike G |http://www.nytimes.com/20…&partner=rssnyt
Imagine this: On his next trip to Japan, President Bush visits the vault at the Bank of Japan, where that country’s $712 billion in United States government bonds is stored. There, as the cameras roll, he announces that the bonds, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, are, in fact, worthless i.o.u.’s. He does the same thing when he visits China and so on around the world, until he has personally repudiated the entire $2 trillion of United States debt held by foreigners.
…[Bush] posed next to a file cabinet that holds the $1.7 trillion in Treasury securities that make up the Social Security trust fund. He tossed off a comment to the effect that the bonds were not "real assets." Later, in a speech at a nearby university, he said: "There is no trust fund. Just i.o.u.’s that I saw firsthand."
