
CNN website hacked: "China dumps all bonds" - sheetjs
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:E6OJcLJ10WQJ:politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/23/breaking-china-dumps-all-bonds-declares-south-china-sea-closed-zone/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
======
aethr
More specifically, a blog subdomain of cnn (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com),
which appears to be a Wordpress site, was hacked.

------
nthitz
Still better than all the Bebier stuff that was breaking on their (US)
homepage today

~~~
duiker101
wow and there is basically nothing about Ukraine... this crazy!

~~~
Shivetya
Welcome to Zucker's quest to make CNN relevant.... which apparently means
being the online version of the supermarket check out line. The FoxNews site
has more important international stories than CNN, I am assuming CNN expecting
readers to click the World tab.

Out front, between Drudge and Google News I get all the leads I need.

~~~
rtpg
you might want to hit something like Huff Post to counter Drudge.

~~~
d23
I'm not a fan of huffpo, but considering Drudge routinely runs conspiratorial
things like "Obama born in Kenya", I would not put them on the same level.

~~~
ceejayoz
I'd put the Huffpo's publishing vaccine denial advocacy on that level.

------
sirteno
To put things in perspective, China holds approximately 7.5% of the total US
debt load ($17.3 trillion). That's an estimated $1.3 trillion in U.S.
Treasuries. They are the largest foreign investor in US treasuries's[0] and
the major holders of all USD foreign exchange reserves due to their huge trade
surplus with the US. These dollars need to be invested somewhere and the U.S.
Treasury market is one of the few places that China can recycle its surplus
dollars.

Even during the financial crisis in 2009 and the debate around the public debt
ceiling in the summer of 2011 with the subsequent downgrade of the U.S. long-
term sovereign credit by S&P, China continued to increase their USD reserves
while other endowment funds in regions such as the Middle East took steps to
diversify their FX reserves away from the USD. China is dependent on the US
Treasury market - and it's stability - because as long as China continues to
hold down the value of its currency to the USD, it will have few options other
than to keep investing in U.S. dollar assets.

[0] [http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-
center/ti...](http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-
center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt)

------
dsl
The CNN main site was not hacked. This was a blog hosted by WordPress VIP
([http://vip.wordpress.com/](http://vip.wordpress.com/))

------
jasey
It's late here and I've been working all day and I'm half asleep. So it took
me a few seconds to realise this was a hoax.

My reaction was literally "holly shit!", Then I don't know why but my mind
started racing to figure out how one would acquire gold and bitcoins at 10 to
midnight on a Friday night heading into a weekend...

Thinking i need some verification before i make any move, I then realised the
page was a google cache and then came back to hn to realise it was a cached
hacked page.

But for a few seconds I was scared and excited at the same time...the same
feeling of 9/11 actually

------
stabiilize
Any reports on stock crashes? I'm sure there are some sentiment analysis bots
trading on news trends that read this and dumped everything.

------
bsaul
Is it me or would "china dumping us bonds" have absolutely no effect since the
Federal reserve is already the only one buying us bonds in massive quantities
?

~~~
jackgavigan
Well, a lot of banks, insurance companies, trust funds, mutual funds, pension
funds, social security funds, other countries and individuals own US treasury
bonds.

China's holdings are significant - over $1.3tn or around 7.5% of all US
government debt. If they were to dump all of it onto the market at once (a
crazy idea which they would never do), the simple excess of supply over demand
would cause Treasury prices to plunge and the USD would likely drop in the
foreign exchange markets too.

As soon as someone at one of the big US investment banks realised what was
going on, phone calls would start being made to wake people up in London and
then New York (this assumes that the sell-off starts during Asian trading
hours) and eventually someone would wake up Bill Dudley (head of the New York
Fed). He, in turn, would wake up Bernanke and Lew, who would call the
President (who'd probably already have been woken up by the IC/military).

By that point, the markets would be in turmoil. The combination of the sell-
off with a big military move (i.e. declaring the South China Sea a closed
zone) is interesting, because an increased likelihood of military conflict
typically causes investors to sell riskier assets and buy less risky ones,
like US Treasury bonds. So, stock markets would drop across the world - I'd
say at least 3%, probably more like 5%. Buying gold and oil is like a bit of a
kneejerk reaction in times of geopolitical turmoil, so those would probably
rise.

I doubt the increased demand from investors for Treasuries would be enough to
absorb $1.3tn worth of bonds so Treasury prices would be dropping through the
floor. That introduces a new dynamic because Treasuries are commonly used as
trading collateral, so you'd start seeing margin calls, just like we did
during the credit crunch (which is what caused Lehman Brothers to collapse).

So, Dudley would almost certainly act to stabilise the market by instructing
the Fed's trading desk to start buying Treasuries. I don't know what the
practicalities are of the Fed buying $1.3tn at short notice (e.g. whether they
can simply create that many dollars out of thin air and credit them to their
counterparties' accounts) but, assuming they could, that would support the
price of US Treasuries although yields would probably still end up jumping by
at least 100 basis points, and the USD would probably drop significantly
against the Euro.

So, all in all, I'd be inclined to disagree with the idea that China dumping
US bonds would have absolutely no effect. :-)

~~~
fennecfoxen
> I don't know what the practicalities are of the Fed buying $1.3tn at short
> notice (e.g. whether they can simply create that many dollars out of thin
> air and credit them to their counterparties' accounts)

Ah. Yes. They can totally do that.

So the question is whether their extant open-market operations which aim for a
particular interest rate on Treasuries will in fact buy the bonds quickly
enough that substantial market turmoil would be avoided. And, if so, whether
the increased supply of USD would have a higher velocity than it did when
China was sitting on it, which could lead to a weaker dollar or substantial
inflation.

(And of course, people could just generally freak out anyway, leading to
turmoil.)

~~~
jackgavigan
_> Ah. Yes. They can totally do that._

Yeah, I had been thinking about how TARP required congressional approval but,
of course, the _reason_ it required congressional approval was because the
"troubled assets" in question were not Treasuries. A little investigation
reveals that section 14 of the Federal Reserve Act authorises the Fed "To buy
and sell, at home or abroad, bonds and notes of the United States".

 _> ..whether the increased supply of USD would have a higher velocity than it
did when China was sitting on it, which could lead to a weaker dollar or
substantial inflation._

Weaker dollar? Definitely. I expect the ECB and banks of England and Japan
would buy dollars - both to help the US stabilise markets and to avoid their
own currencies growing tooo strong - but I'd still expect to see a significant
drop in the value of USD. 20%, maybe?

Substantial inflation? Inflation is a longer-term, delayed reaction sort of
thing so I reckon it would depend on what happened subsequently.

The funny thing is that, having been through the turmoil of September 2008,
the financial system is probably better prepared and positioned now, than it
was before the Financial Crisis, to deal with the turmoil that would be caused
by China dumping its Treasury holdings.

------
codezero
They recently posted that their social media accounts were compromised by the
Syrian Electronic Army, so this is probably related.

~~~
dredmorbius
In the absence of other evidence, interesting information but not confirmation
of anything.

"Possibly related" would be a much better phrasing. Though additional updates
seem to support that it was SEA.

A crucial thing to remember in a fog-of-war scenario is that _all_ information
becomes suspect. Your best response is to take actions that reduce
uncertainty, risk, and volatility. Not which increase them.

------
throwwit
I was wondering what was happening to the site as well. The bookmark icon for
[http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com](http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com) changed to a
generic wordpress icon just recently in my toolbar.

------
touristtam
Blocked by by the Web Security Appliance at work .... potential
malware/spyware

------
waterlesscloud
There was also a story about the US declaring a state of national emergency,
and the reporter being unable to contact anyone in the State Department. As
little sense as that made.

------
perlgeek
Is this a hoax? or satire? Doesn't look like credible news to me, somehow.

~~~
streetnigga
From CNN[0].

[0] [http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/tech/cnn-accounts-
hacked/](http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/tech/cnn-accounts-hacked/)

------
streetnigga
There is a special place in hell for SEA (Syrian Electronic Army) members. In
addition to hacking sites as to spew propaganda, they have been reporting
nonviolent activist pages while promoting terrorist (ISIS) pages. Running a
plethora of personas[0] that harass and attack while disseminating horse-shit
like the Adra massacre. That Adra event saw Russia Times relaying false
reports[1]. Of course phishing pretty much anyone that mentions Syria/Sham.
Gotta get those admin credentials somehow right?

All this while their regime goes about talking peace at Geneva2 and dropping
crude air dropped improvised explosives (ADIED) onto residential
neighborhoods. From two days ago, one of the happier videos to report from
these strikes, a child being pulled alive from concrete rubble[2]. In addition
to the regular munitons dropped on a daily basis the rocket system used to
launch chemical weapon attacks is parked at the regime's Mezzeh military
airport in Damascus[3] yet SEA and company have been trying to co-opt and seed
disinformation on the subject such as focusing on nosecones[4].

This "cyberwar" mess has very real ramifications, and those are heaps of
tortured/executed prisoners stacked up wrapped in plastic[5] with death
certificates fraudulently made by the state. Real A level war crimes stuff. I
have great hatred for these electronic shills and the murder they help
further.

[0]
[http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Persona_Management](http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Persona_Management)

[1] [http://www.interpretermag.com/the-massacre-in-syria-that-
was...](http://www.interpretermag.com/the-massacre-in-syria-that-wasnt/)

[2] [http://youtu.be/-m_IgNakiXc](http://youtu.be/-m_IgNakiXc)

[3] [http://imgur.com/gallery/C45Cw](http://imgur.com/gallery/C45Cw)

[4] [http://whoghouta.blogspot.com/2013/09/umlaca-
simulation.html](http://whoghouta.blogspot.com/2013/09/umlaca-simulation.html)

[5]
[https://twitter.com/anadoluagency/status/426287533689815040](https://twitter.com/anadoluagency/status/426287533689815040)

edit: See helpful comment regarding naming below.

~~~
throwaway7892
I wouldn't trust anything on Anadolu Agency which is owned by the current
religious fascist Turkish government which is against Syria ONLY because they
are from different Islamic fraction. The government wants to see religious
fascists in power in Syria. Those things in the pictures were probably done by
the barbaric islamic fundamentalist rebels.

Most Turkish people are against the government's senseless war against Syria.
In last few weeks the government was caught sending military equipment to the
barbaric islamic syrian rebels many times.

~~~
streetnigga
Sure thing hoss. Here is the story[0] associated with the photos.

"Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in the light of a
huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic
killing" of about 11,000 detainees, according to three eminent international
lawyers.

The three, former prosecutors at the criminal tribunals for the former
Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, examined thousands of Syrian government
photographs and files recording deaths in the custody of regime security
forces from March 2011 to last August."

OK so you are adamant that it was not the regime who tortured and executed
people, that the photos were due to those nasty Islamists. How about a report
pre-dating the previous on the Assad regime's Raid Brigade, amongst others in
the Damascus area. Was the industrious kidnapping and murder of detainees by
military also a false flag? Branch 215, Raid Brigade - Military Intelligence
Division - Damascus[1].

[0] [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/20/evidence-
indust...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/20/evidence-industrial-
scale-killing-syria-war-crimes)

[1] [http://www.vdc-
sy.info/index.php/en/reports/1380463510#.UuIv...](http://www.vdc-
sy.info/index.php/en/reports/1380463510#.UuIvZLQwdaQ)

~~~
inanov
Yeah something should be done, and what else is better than barbaric islamic
fundamentalist rebels, beheading war criminals, and bloodshed murderers,
supported by international bloodthirsty, greedy media cartels.

We should support them as they are fighting against an anti-democratic regime.
We will think about the other aspects, once democracy is settled, democracy
first.

~~~
streetnigga
Way to respond with a comment that is contextual with what I said.

You really didn't conflate my detailing mass murder with support for other
murderers at all there. If you did one could say it would be highly
detrimental to discussion. Good thing you didn't though.

edit: I do love me tried and true tactics like what inanov and throwaway
display. Anything said against a subject they feel strongly about is means to
deny what is said then distort who is speaking. At the very least a lot of
accusations and insinuations not relating to the original subject being
discussed will be brought up adding noise to the signal. For a very topical
example here is the regime's Syrian State TV split screening opposition
talking at Geneva2 with stock footage of bombing carnage[0].

[0]
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BekwsuACIAA2gQr.jpg:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BekwsuACIAA2gQr.jpg:large)

~~~
inanov
In turkey, current government divides people into two groups (done through
media, NGO's etc.): Pro-Assad, and Anti-Assad. Even though you do not fancy
the guy, one morning when you wake up, you find yourself a Pro-Assad.

Even though you scream out that you are against war, and any crimes by persons
or governments should be judged by an independent court, and war is not a
solution, you still are a Pro-Assad. After sometime, I found out that this is
not a local situation, this applies to the whole world. I know that once these
are over, no war crimes will be punished, they will be loosely covered.

I remember when turkish prime minister visited Assad, handshakes, good wills.
A few months later, you see that this same prime minister, just in a moment,
starts to tell exact same words with some other governments which are very
impatient to start a war (as if they were reading from a paper).

I know that no government is clean, they all have hands in blood, blood of a
minority, another country or nation etc. Assad is not an exception but I
believe that the other side of this war is not clean either. After seeing a
lot of lies being told by the Turkish government and the media, I am more sure
that this is not a fair fight, and this is not about Assad torturing the
Syrian citizens. And I know that supporting bloodshed beheading islamic
fundamentalist murderers is far from willing goodness of Syrian people.

------
notastartup
China dumps all bonds.

US declares return to gold standards.

Chinese economy crashes.

World experiences significant economic downturn but soon recovers.

~~~
not-impressed
Haha are you aware of the amount of Gold china is buying?
[http://www.ingoldwetrust.ch/unprecedented-total-chinese-
gold...](http://www.ingoldwetrust.ch/unprecedented-total-chinese-gold-
demand-2013)

If/when USD looses its position as a reserve currency, the price of gold will
skyrocket and China will be looking smug.

~~~
wintersFright
and this [http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/China-expected-to-
anno...](http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/China-expected-to-announce-it-
has-more-than-doubled-gold-reserve-expert-says/shdaily.shtml)

------
justinzollars
Hacked by Ron Paul!

~~~
sleepyK
RON PAUL 2012!!! :P

------
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> Filed under: 2010 • 2012 • Candidate Barack Obama • Congress • Health care •
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