The upheaval in stocks has been grabbing all the headlines, but there is a bigger problem looming in another corner of the financial markets that rarely gets headlines: Investors are dumping U.S. government bonds.

Normally, investors rush into Treasurys at a whiff of economic chaos but now they are selling them as not even the lure of higher interest payments on the bonds is getting them to buy. The freak development has experts worried that big banks, funds and traders are losing faith in America as a good place to store their money.

“The fear is the U.S. is losing its standing as the safe haven,” said George Cipolloni, a fund manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management. “Our bond market is the biggest and most stable in the world, but when you add instability, bad things can happen.”

That could be bad news for consumers in need of a loan — and for President Donald Trump, who had hoped his tariff pause earlier this week would restore confidence in the markets.

    • TronBronson@lemmy.world
      21·
      3 days ago

      European markets and bonds seem to be catching a lot of the fleeing capital so… big doubt.

      We were up 3-0 in the finals and blew the lead. Enjoy generations of poverty if your family can survive the great depression.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        9·
        3 days ago

        It’s more like we came out of WW2 up by 10 because the other teams got decimated. As the decades have gone on they’ve rebuilt their teams and scored some goals so while we kept scoring, they were catching up. This is actually the natural process where a rebuilt Europe was expected to eventually equal the US.

        But Trump just blew up the scoreboard and now everyone is wondering if we’re even still playing the same game.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          3 days ago

          The US was just the latest to take advantage of a disaster. Not too long before the Nazis tried to kill all the Jews were americans trying to kill all the native americans, as well. I’m not sure america has done any good as a country in a long while.

    • green@feddit.nlEnglish
      71·
      3 days ago

      People from the U.S. (and even parts of Europe) do not understand how corrupt, stupid, and unstable majority of the world is. It is genuinely unfathomable.

      This does not excuse the fascism of the current admin, nor the war-crimes of the U.S. as a whole, but they are nowhere even remotely close to the likes of Moldova.

      • kokolowlander@lemm.ee
        33·
        3 days ago

        Yup. US dollar is not the reserve currency because it’s attractive. It is the reserve currency because there simply is no alternative. There simply is no asset that can hold hundreds of trillions of dollar.

          • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
            7·
            3 days ago

            if I were to move to Europe and get the exact same job and free Healthcare, I’d be making a fraction of what I do now.

            facepalm dawg you can’t just compare how much you make in the two places, how do you quantify the stress that comes from never knowing if medical problem is going to end your life… because it will bankrupt you and your family not because it will kill you directly?