Bad Pennies

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Thank you, sir. It’s a pleasure to be here again.

I first met Mister Kak in, wait, is, is the date classified—? Let’s just say in the nineteen eighties. He came to my attention, to the Agency’s attention, through a series of memos from the station chief in Vinograd, where Mister Kak lived at the time.

The Vinograd regime was unresponsive to diplomacy. The Agency wanted to inject one billion dollars in colorable local currency into the black market, thus destabilizing the, yes Senator?

Colorable. We don’t use the word counterfeit.

Well, Senator, there is ample precedent. I mean, the Brits did it to the Soviets, the Germans did it to the Brits, the Paks did it to the Indians. In Vietnam the United States issued what we call parody currency, solely as a propaganda front.

The actual manufacture of the currency? I can’t discuss that.

Okay. We set up a firm in Vinograd, called Polemonium Assets, with Mister Kak in charge. He made loans, he procured infrastructure from local businessmen, et cetera. But despite a massive injection of really very well made banknotes, the official economy stayed flat. There was no price inflation, no rush to redeem old bonds, no pressure on the central bank or the government. Because the General ordered the central bank: As long as no one withdraws, there’s no problem.

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