Article: The Bogus “Super Dollars” That Fooled the World for Two Decades

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The Bogus “Super Dollars” That Fooled the World for Two Decades

EXPLICA .CO, 25 May 2021

The forgery was so perfect that even US Secret Service experts could not initially determine whether it was real dollars or a copy before them.

Only after a sophisticated forensic analysis were they able to confirm that they were fakes. But those $ 100 bills were so millimeter perfect who nicknamed them “The false superdollars.” They had the same high-tech color change ink as real US dollars.

They were also printed on paper with exactly the same fiber composition as the originals: three-quarters of American cotton and one-quarter of linen. The recorded images were, if anything, finer than those produced by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Kirill Kukhmar Even machines were hard to recognize counterfeit. A little variation, then reported the New York Times, which revealed that they were not original. The United States was very alarmed that counterfeits were passing through the banks undetectedas no one could tell the difference.

These “super dollars” circulated around the world in the 1990s and 2000s. During these years, the United States decided to change the design of the US $ 100 bills twice, but counterfeiters managed to adapt.

They appeared in Denmark, France, Austria, Germany, Latvia, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Ireland. Also in Russia.

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Article: Draghi brushes off Trump accusation of currency manipulation

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Draghi brushes off Trump accusation of currency manipulation

EURACTIV, 19 June 2019

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Tuesday (18 June) that the institution “doesn’t target the exchange rate”, shrugging off an allegation of currency manipulation from US President Donald Trump.

“We have our remit. We have our mandate. Our mandate is price stability” or inflation just below two percent, Draghi told a central banking conference in Sintra, Portugal.

“We are ready to use all the instruments that are necessary to fulfil this mandate, and we don’t target the exchange rate,” he added.

Draghi’s statement that weak economic growth and sluggish inflation could prompt the ECB to slash further rates already at historic lows had earlier sparked Trump’s ire.

“Mario Draghi just announced more stimulus could come, which immediately dropped the Euro against the Dollar, making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA,” Trump said on Twitter.

“They have been getting away with this for years, along with China and others,” he added.
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Article: Austria extends naked short ban for some financials

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Austria extends naked short ban for some financials

Reuters Staff, 29 May 2012

VIENNA, May 29 (Reuters) – Austria has extended until Oct. 31 its ban on naked short selling of shares in lenders Erste Group Bank and Raiffeisen Bank International and insurers Vienna and Uniqa, the FMA market watchdog said on Tuesday.

The ban had been set to expire on May 31. Only short-term transactions by market makers or specialists are exempt from the ban.

Short sellers sell borrowed shares in the hope they can be bought back at a lower price. Naked short-selling involves selling shares without first borrowing them.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?