A secret US-Saudi deal from 1973 falls apart.
Ever since the US made a secret deal with Saudi Arabia in 1973 to end the
oil embargo, the Treasury Department has never disclosed Saudi Arabia’s
holdings of US Treasury securities.
“It’s among concessions that U.S. administrations made over the years to maintain
America’s strategic relationship with the Saudi royal family and access to
the kingdom’s oil reserves,” Bloomberg News explained, after it had successfully
pushed the Treasury via a Freedom-of-Information Act request into finally
disclosing the data.
So today, the Treasury released the data on Saudi Arabia for the first
time. It’s a doozie: a lot smaller than the number that had been bandied
about in the media.
This became a big public issue in early April, when the Saudi government
threatened the White House and members of Congress that it would dump its
purportedly vast Treasury holdings and other US assets if Congress dared to
pass a bill that would permit plaintiffs to sue the Saudi government in US
courts for any role in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
At the time, the White House lobbied Congress against the bill. According
to the New York Times, these “Saudi threats have been the
subject of intense discussions,” with officials warning “senators of
diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.”
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s
message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers
that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury
securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in
danger of being frozen by American courts.
But that purported $750 billion in US assets – to whatever extent they
exists – contain a relatively small amount of Treasuries. Today, in its March
figures, the Department of the Treasury made Saudi ownership of Treasuries
part of its monthly TIC reports: a mere $116.8 billion.
Saudi holdings of Treasuries peaked in January at $123.6 billion and have
since dropped 5.5%, as the country grapples with huge budget deficits due to
the oil bust and its “costly wars in the Middle East,” as Bloomberg put it.
Until today, the Treasury reported Saudi holdings only as part of a
lump-sum figure for a group of 14 large oil producers, mostly OPEC members.
Those were the only countries treated that way. The holdings of all other
countries have been reported by individual country — even the Vatican.
By comparison, China is number 1 with $1.245 trillion in US Treasuries as of March, and Japan number 2 with $1.137 trillion. Note among the next in line, the tiny offshore financial centers with disproportionate positions in US Treasuries, which they hold for others: Number 3, the Cayman Islands with $265 billion; number 4, Ireland with $264 billion; Brazil with $246 billion; Switzerland with $230 billion; the UK with $228 billion; and Luxembourg with $221 billion.
Saudi Arabia, with its $116.8 billion in US Treasuries, is in 13th position, behind Belgium and India.
So how important are Saudi holdings? The total US Gross National Debt is $19.2 trillion, of which the US government itself holds $5.37 trillion in federal pension funds, the Social Security Trust Fund, etc. And the remaining $13.83 trillion is held by the “public,” which includes Saudi Arabia. Hence, its share of Treasuries held by the public amounts to 0.8% — a drop in the bucket!
Saudi Arabia might also hold some Treasuries in offshore custodial accounts to create another layer of secrecy and to keep the securities beyond the long arm of the US government.
But even if Saudi Arabia decided to dump whatever Treasuries it holds to punish the US for trying to come to grips with the facts around 9-11, it would barely make a ripple. In our insane world of negative interest rates, Japan’s 10-year government debt has a negative yield of -0.11% despite the country’s fiscal nightmare; and 10-year yields of other countries are near zero, with the German 10-year yield at 0.14%. In that crazy environment, US Treasuries are hot.
They sport a practically luxurious 10-year yield of 1.76%, more than 10 times the German 10-year yield! So any additional supply that Saudi Arabia might dump on the market would be mopped up instantly at the slightest uptick in yields by buyers that have been mauled half to death by ingenious central-bank policies.
Who is the new king of cross-border mergers and acquisitions that is now buying at record pace and at peak prices, funded by state-owned banks? Read… China Inc. Tries to Buy the World, with Impeccable Timing