• MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de
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    17 hours ago

    OK, I feel like many people here don’t know what this means.

    The US sells bonds to people. These bonds are promises to pay them back more in a certain number of years.

    The EU can’t demand payment for all of that debt. What the EU CAN do, is selling the bonds it already owns, flooding the market. And not buying more themselves.

    This would mean, that selling more bonds would become expensive for the US. Potentially they won’t find enough buyers to fund their government.

    Canada already threatened that (or started to do this, I don’t remember) once already at the start of Trumps term. This might have been a factor for him backing of his invasion fantasies the first time.

    • Technus@lemmy.zip
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      16 hours ago

      They don’t even have to sell what they’ve got. They just have to stop buying more and invest elsewhere instead.

      The US runs on a perpetually increasing deficit. If that line were to stop going up, we’d instantly fall into a recession.

      • cheesybuddha@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        They would be crazy to keep investing in the US at this point. Why throw good money after bad? Time to cut your loses and move on I think.

        • Tiger@sh.itjust.works
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          13 hours ago

          Because the US economy is like a coked up salesman, not a great guy, but he’s hit those growth targets out of the park. Until now. But he’s running out of gas and the party’s over, pissed off too many people.

          • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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            9 hours ago

            Yeah and they are getting to a point where there isn’t much growth to be had.

            Which is why I think he wants Venezuela and Greenland, I honestly think the US is kind of broke.

            If that keeps the party going, then unfortunately some will keep investing.

            Hence why it’s actually critical not to just give him Greenland, making it hard will have an impact.

        • III@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          US can issue domestically without issue.

          Wasn’t tanking the bond market like the first thing Trump did in his second term? Or, I guess the uncertainty his “policies” result in (whether intentional or not) has tanked the bond market.

          • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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            12 hours ago

            The only American bonds that I would buy, would be War Bonds for waging war against the Trump Regime.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            In Jan 2024 the short term bonds were at 5% and long term at 4%. Jan 2025 and Jan 2026 short term bonds were at 4% and long term at 5%.

            So, no. Bond market hasn’t changed much. Yet.

          • massacre@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            It was. And it was due to the tarrifs and uncertain nature (I.e. Trump chaos). Between that and cooking the GDP and Jobs numbers and firing hundreds of thousands of government employees that keep us functioning and you have a shit domestic market to sell into.

    • III@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      This might have been a factor for him backing of his invasion fantasies the first time.

      Joke is on them, he is so vapidly stupid he forgot and is again threatening Canada.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      15 hours ago

      To add context, part of getting Great Britain and France to back off in the Suez Crisis was Eisenhower threatening to sell off American owned debt in these two countries.

      • III@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Were the leaders of Great Britain and France rot-brained orange fools at the time? I am assuming because they didn’t throw tantrums and dig in further that the answer is no.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Potentially they won’t find enough buyers to fund their government.

      Nah. They only need to fund the interest. Domestic investors can do that for a decade or so. The rest is eaten by inflation.

      A US bond embargo is a long term strategy, not short term.