DOLLAR COLLAPSE - Did Russia Just Move Its Treasury Holdings Offshore?

Foreign central banks' Treasury bond holdings parked at the Federal Reserve dropped by the most on record in the latest week. Some analysts think the crisis in Ukraine is sparking the move.

Their theory: Russia is shifting its Treasury bond holdings out of the Fed and into offshore accounts. That way, Russia would be able to buy or sell its portfolio if the U.S. and its European allies impose economic sanctions amid growing geopolitical tensions in Ukraine.

Treasury securities held in custody for foreign official and international accounts tumbled by $105 billion in the week that ended Wednesday, according to weekly data released late Thursday. That shrank Treasury bond holdings by foreign central banks to a 15-month low of $2.855 trillion, though still near a record high of $3.02 trillion set in December.

Relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated sharply in recent days as Crimea prepares to hold a referendum Sunday on whether to split from Ukraine and join Russia. Ukraine, the European Union and the U.S. view that vote as illegal. The U.S. and Germany warned that Russia could face economic sanctions if the crisis worsens.

"The upcoming referendum in Crimea and multiple threats of sanctions could have triggered a significant reallocation of Treasurys to non-US custodians," said Shyam Rajan, interest rate strategist at Bank of AmericaBAC -2.10% Merrill Lynch in New York.

Russian entities held $138.6 billion of Treasury debt as of December 31 which includes both official and private holdings, according to the Treasury Department's website.

Despite the selling by central banks, Treasury bond prices have strengthened for each trading session this week as investors sought protection from the haven market over worries about Ukraine's geopolitical tensions and China's slowing economy.

Some traders took the bond market's strength as a sign foreign central banks merely transferred their bonds to different accounts, rather than selling them. "If central banks were selling that much Treasurys, the market would have noticed and would not have traded as well as it has this week," Mr. Cronin said.

The U.S. has around 1,000 military bases around the world. The Pentagon, however, puts the number at 662 in 38 different countries.

Kerry's outrage and the corporate media manufactured opposition to Russia's supposed invasion of Ukraine would be far less hypocritical if Americans were not so oblivious to the bases their government maintains in foreign countries.

CNN and Fox talk endlessly about the opposition by Ukrainians to the presence of Russian troops, but you never hear about the fact over 90 percent of Okinawans oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Japan's southernmost prefecture. russia treasury offshore bank banking . A Kremlin economist, Sergei Glazyev, told RIA Novosti the Russian government may not repay loans owed to the financial cartel if the United States imposes sanctions on the country in response to the Crimea intervention.

If there's one thing that should be clear, it's that nothing the government or their banking partners have done to solve the economic crisis has been for your benefit. They've enriched themselves, yet again, on the backs of the American people.

We continue to shed jobs. Hundreds of thousands of people are still losing their homes. Personal debt is rapidly approaching 2007 levels. The U.S. government has borrowed more money than what we can ever hope to repay.

Trend forecaster Gerald Celente predicted the collapse of 2008 in remarkable fashion. And now he's warning of a similar crisis to come next year. There's fear and hysteria running through the entire global financial community, because as everybody knows all they did was postpone the inevitable.