U.S. House panel questions monitoring of cash shipped to Iraq
There was a bit of this on the news today, with some interesting pictures. Over 300 tons (yes, tons) of US $100 bills shipped into Iraq. Of course, the claim is that this all went to the new Iraqi government, but I heard rumblings about this a long time ago. Contractors were being paid with sacks (big sacks) of cash. Which is odd, bucause most of them are US corporations that could easily get normal (non-cash) payment from the US government.
U.S. House panel questions monitoring of cash shipped to Iraq
Ah, here's an article on (of all things) CNN Money from summer 2004 about big bags of cash in Iraq. And it was all handed to US citizens, not Iraqis. But I bet they pin this one on the Iraqis anyway. Which is even more absurd. How do you haul away 300 tons of anything, 'stolen' from guys with lots of guns, and then where do you put it?
Fortunes of War A mercenary's dream at the outset of the war, Iraq is turning into a difficult market for security firms. Most of their problems would be familiar to any startup.
U.S. House panel questions monitoring of cash shipped to Iraq
Ah, here's an article on (of all things) CNN Money from summer 2004 about big bags of cash in Iraq. And it was all handed to US citizens, not Iraqis. But I bet they pin this one on the Iraqis anyway. Which is even more absurd. How do you haul away 300 tons of anything, 'stolen' from guys with lots of guns, and then where do you put it?
Fortunes of War A mercenary's dream at the outset of the war, Iraq is turning into a difficult market for security firms. Most of their problems would be familiar to any startup.
posted by Dr. Steven Morphy-Godchaux III at
8:26 AM
4 Comments:
I recall a story when we first reached Bagdad about the army finding several tractor trailers full of American $$ that Sadaam was attempting to move out of the country. It's amazing that despite their hate of America, every crackpot in the world can't get enough of our cash.
By
Murphy "Mac" Morphy, at Wed Feb 07, 11:30:00 AM CST
As a compulsive engineer, I was curious how much cash a tractor trailer would hold. Let's say 100 bills is a half an inch think (wild guess here). Say a bill is 3x6 inches. with $100 bills, you get $1,111 per square inch. Let's call it a grand per in^3. That's about $1.7 million per cubic foot. Call it 3,000 cubic feet in a tractor trailer. That's about $5 billion. Check my math on that guys ...
By
Dr. Steven Morphy-Godchaux III, at Wed Feb 07, 02:41:00 PM CST
I think the real puzzler is whether or not there are THAT MANY Franklins in print. I think your math is good, but that seems to be a lotta Big Head Bens, especially if he had several rigs filled with that legal tender.
By
Thurston J Morphy III, at Thu Feb 08, 09:29:00 AM CST
Interesting point. Does anyone in the US today need more than one or two of these notes at a time? That would only be about $30B in circulation.
But seriously. How does this work? Does the President pick up the phone, call the U.S. Mint and say "Can I get a few truckloads of $100 bills delivered?"
By
Dr. Steven Morphy-Godchaux III, at Fri Feb 09, 10:37:00 AM CST
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