Thread: Isx

LITTLE SILVER — Living in a sandbag-fortified trailer, working in the palace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and traveling in a vehicle with bulletproof glass sounds like the stuff of soldiers.
But it is the story of Little Silver lawyer Michael Silva, who for three months worked as an adviser to the Central Bank of Iraq.
Silva, 43, is an employee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who volunteered to work in Baghdad in October to assist in the effort to rebuild and reorganize the banking and economic structure of that country.
Silva received the secretary’s Honor Award from the Department of the Treasury and the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award from the Department of Defense for his work in Iraq.

Michael Silva stands on Saddam Hussein’s parade route, where Iraqi troops used to march through what Saddam called the Victory Arch.
Although Silva’s work in Iraq was strictly in a civilian capacity, his time spent in the military made him an ideal candidate for his role in Iraq.
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983, Silva spent six years in the Navy as an F-14 Tomcat weapons officer before attending Columbia Law School, New York, graduating in 1992.
Because of his service in the Navy and his experience in international economic affairs, Silva was asked if he would volunteer for this mission last year with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
"The Federal Reserve doesn’t require people to go to war zones," he said.
In 1992, he went to work at the Federal Reserve Bank, the nation’s central bank established by Congress to regulate the nation’s monetary and financial systems.
Because of Silva’s experience, he was hired to work with foreign central bank customers.
According to Silva, many foreign central banks prefer to keep their financial reserves in dollars.
"We have over a trillion dollars in foreign assets at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York," he explained.
Silva likens his job to that of an international financial "plumber."
"If you have a problem at your house with your bathtub, you call a blue-collar plumber," he said. "You want to move billions of dollars, you get me."
Silva was recruited to help set up an account for Iraq’s oil proceeds at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
"All of Iraq’s oil proceeds came to the Federal Reserve Bank," Silva said. "That’s where we maintained a special account that was mandated by the United Nations, and that account was called the Development Fund for Iraq."
Silva explained that because Iraq is a cash economy, there is literally no way to transfer money electronically. Instead, the Federal Reserve Bank transports billions of dollars in cash to Iraq.
The cash is transported in large, unmarked tractor-trailers with a helicopter escort overhead. The cash is taken to Andrews Air Force Base and loaded onto a military aircraft and flown to Iraq.
"I think our largest shipment was over $2 billion in cash," Silva said. "That took several tractor-trailers."
Silva was also transported to Iraq on a military aircraft, which is the only way to fly into the country.
"It’s very complicated to get into Baghdad, and the palace is an extremely chaotic place to work," Silva said.
His responsibilities there, as part of a 25-person banking team from the United States and Great Britain, focused on helping to reorganize the structure of the Central Bank of Iraq.The reorganization aimed to bring a more modern banking system to the Central Bank, the state banks and the private sector banks.
"First we issued a new currency without Saddam’s face on it," Silva said. "People would bring in their old Saddam currency, and we would give them new currency."
Silva and his team also helped to set up currency auctions, in which Iraqis could sell their dinars, the cur­rency of Iraq, and receive U.S. dollars in exchange.
An Iraqi who became nervous about the state of the country’s economy could easily exchange the dinar for the sta­ble dollar
Before the invasion, the exchange rate was 1,900 dinars per $1 in U.S. currency. As a result of the work by Silva and his team, the dinar appreci­ated about 30 percent to 1,300 dinars per one U.S. dollar, he said.
Silva and his team worked toward establishing a free-market economy in Iraq, which had previously been a centrally controlled economy.
"In Iraq, the price of gas had al­ways been set at 2 cents a gallon," Silva said. "The price of food was controlled. The price of electricity was controlled."
Silva acknowledged that he wit­nessed a certain amount of violence, although he was in the "Green Zone," which was supposed to be a relatively safe place in Baghdad.
He was in the country when Sad­dam Hussein was taken into U.S. cus­tody and said that he has never been so proud of America.
After Ambassador L. Paul Brem­mer III, Silva’s boss at the palace, an­nounced that Saddam had been cap­tured, the group was told they would be spending the night in the palace for their safety. Silva ran into some Iraqi workers in the compound.
"They were very scared and ner­vous because they’d been in the com­pound, and they didn’t know what was going on," recalled Silva. "They just heard all this shooting. They were be­ing supervised by a Jordanian. I told the supervisor, ‘Tell them we’ve cap­tured Saddam.’ But he didn’t speak English, so I thought for a moment and I looked at the workers and I said ‘Saddam.’ "
Silva crossed his wrists — to denote being put into handcuffs — to indicate that Saddam had been arrested.
"For a second they were just silent, and then they just exploded," Silva remembered. "Yelling, clapping, sev­eral were crying, and they were slap­ping me on the back, saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ Well, I didn’t do it."
Silva has high hopes for Iraq and its economy.
"The Iraqis are very educated, and they are very entrepreneurial, very hard working," he said. "They’re tough because they’ve lived under 25 years of brutal dictatorship.
"You’ve got capital, you’ve got edu­cation, you’ve got a work ethic," he continued.
He said two things have to happen for Iraq to make the transition to a democratic state.
"They have to establish security, and the Iraqi religious and ethnic fac­tions need to learn to compromise," he said. "Security and compromise — you get those two things together, and Iraq’s going to be another Japan, an­other South Korea, another Germany.
"You really have to establish secu­rity and stop the dying on the streets before you can worry about central banking, before you can start gather­ing economic data and trying to con­trol inflation, and clear checks and distribute money," Silva said. "It be­comes a little silly when you’re trying to talk over the mortars and the rockets going off."
Silva described the work he did as the hardest he ever has had to do.
"We typically worked about 20 hours a day, going on three or four hours of sleep a day," he said. "There was just so much to do and so few peo­ple to do it.
"Everything was so hard to do be­cause there are no phones, no comput­ers; you can only move around with bodyguards and armor," Silva said. "It was very exciting. It was very stress­ful. It was occasionally scary. The last month or so I was really looking for­ward to coming home.
"I travel around a lot," Silva said. "And I always come home with the same thing to say: God bless the United States."

Originally Posted by bluezzguy

Thanks for the interesting info Inscrutable. I cannot look up old posts over there.. how long ago did regenpower post that?

Randy

It's was around Clay 2005.

Originally Posted by moneyhunter

i can't believe this thread is dying!!!!! This is the MOST important question that needs to be asked and answered for us to know if this thing is going to reval or not..... As i see it, there are ONLY 3 things that can and will happen on or before 8/2:

1) It will reval BEFORE the ISX
2) The ISX will be delayed
3) The ISX will open at current rate and LATER, MAYBE reval with a reverse split.......

As i see it, the probabilities of these things happening, from best to worst are 2,3 and then 1.... I still need opinions from people like mike52,neno, osw,osw,kiko,moto,wknowles, rr, and ANYBODY with knowledge or boots on the ground...now it THIS were to happen, it should be in the think tank......

thanks,

hunter

I think most are just worn out trying to figure what will happen.

Originally Posted by Inscrutable

If you go to IFF and look at past post from regenpower you will see that he stated the dinar would revalue when the ISX opened. His source was an american lawyer that worked to rebuild the central bank sysytem in Iraq. Michael Silva. Little Silver banker aids rebuilding of Iraq Lawyer tells of working in Saddam Hussein’s palace BY LAYLI WHYTE Staff Writer

I think he was the only guy/guys who were spot on about the revalue.

Very interesting. Is he saying Aug 2 or just when ISX opens?

Originally Posted by livefree

Very interesting. Is he saying Aug 2 or just when ISX opens?

I can't find the exact post but it said that the revalue would be announced at the opening of the ISX to FI. Everybody laughed at him but I think he knew something. He might have had some connection to the Silva guy as he was in NJ (as am I) and he posted the guys contact details on IIF. I think it was ok'd by Mr Silva until his wife was overwhelmed with calls then it was pulled.

Originally Posted by Inscrutable

I can't find the exact post but it said that the revalue would be announced at the opening of the ISX to FI. Everybody laughed at him but I think he knew something. He might have had some connection to the Silva guy as he was in NJ (as am I) and he posted the guys contact details on IIF. I think it was ok'd by Mr Silva until his wife was overwhelmed with calls then it was pulled.

What's your thoughts about the reval and the ISX Inscrutable?

Originally Posted by cigarman

What's your thoughts about the reval and the ISX Inscrutable?

I don't believe they have to revalue before or at the start of FI to ISX. I do believe the currency will increase in value but not sure if the old value will be "the new value", this only because of base money supply between then and now. I won't be surprised if 8/2 comes with the opening to FI and no RV.

If their economy grows some strength (through investment) then so too will the currency.

Originally Posted by Inscrutable

I don't believe they have to revalue before or at the start of FI to ISX. I do believe the currency will increase in value but not sure if the old value will be "the new value", this only because of base money supply between then and now. I won't be surprised if 8/2 comes with the opening to FI and no RV.

If their economy grows some strength (through investment) then so too will the currency.

I also don't believe they have to but they will anyway. Just makes more sense for them to do it for the 1 reason of rebuilding cheaper seeing that they will have to import (mostly) until they get the factories back up and running. If I was the GOI, I would rather pay less for the things I need to rebuild especially since my biggest export is sold in USD. Just my thoughts.

Originally Posted by cigarman

I also don't believe they have to but they will anyway. Just makes more sense for them to do it for the 1 reason of rebuilding cheaper seeing that they will have to import (mostly) until they get the factories back up and running. If I was the GOI, I would rather pay less for the things I need to rebuild especially since my biggest export is sold in USD. Just my thoughts.

Noted

Originally Posted by cigarman

I also don't believe they have to but they will anyway. Just makes more sense for them to do it for the 1 reason of rebuilding cheaper seeing that they will have to import (mostly) until they get the factories back up and running. If I was the GOI, I would rather pay less for the things I need to rebuild especially since my biggest export is sold in USD. Just my thoughts.

I saw a sad little interview on CNN yesterday, with an Iraqi man who had been an engineer before the "invasion", (as he put it) and is now feeding his 7 children by selling scented water for holy events 10 hours a day on the street. (Hard to imagine why they might perceive us a little negatively, eh?) Two things caught my ear, one was that he said there were very few dinar, and those were hard to get. The other was the commentary, that said that unemployment and scarcity of money were partly at the heart of the insurgency. Interesting. Anyone have any other ideas as to how the revaluation of the dinar would help these poor people? Would it actually do that, or would it just benefit the higher ups? Would it make any real difference to them? Just musing, there isn't much else going on.