US Treasury Quashes Saudi Threat of Dumping Treasuries

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.

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