Saturday, February 5, 2011

U.S. Treasury urged to consider 100-year bond

This would be the ultimate sucker bet.  Tie up your money for 100 years by lending it to a bankrupt government.  No thanks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/usa-debt-bond-idINN0221347620110202
Top Wall Street firms are urging the U.S. Treasury to create new products for American investors and have suggested an ultra-long bond with a maturity of 100 years, according to minutes from an advisory committee meeting released on Wednesday.

The Treasury's debt advisory panel, which includes executives from JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), recommended at a meeting on Tuesday that the government develop products for three different investor classes: banks, pension funds and insurers, and retail investors.

The new offerings would be a way to pump up domestic demand for the government's securities. Although around half of U.S. debt is held by domestic investors, heavy reliance on foreign creditors such as China, with just under $900 billion in U.S. Treasuries, is causing some concern in Washington.
Ya think?  Since foreign buyers are stepping away from the US Treasury bond market, now the big banks want to jam retail investors with worthless IOU's.  The hubris among the financial elite is remarkable.

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