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Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

reuters.com

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Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#331

Post by epolanski »

kyboren wrote: post #305
jacquesm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a one sided thing. The US has been allowed to do a lot of things under the NATO umbrella that it benefited from (such as: selling a vast quantity of arms). Soft power is a thing and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization came into being to deal with exactly the kind of situation that we are viewing today. To see the US bow out, and in fact threatening allies is duplicitous at best.

NATO came into being to deal with the USSR, which was the preeminent threat to all NATO members. The US wasn't expected just to come save Europe; European states had real military power and the will to bring it to bear against the US's main adversary. In a conflict with the USSR, the US could rely on Europe to fight with them. Very valuable. Today, US policymakers see China as the main adversary. But European states…

> Europeans now expect America to fight Russia for them, not with them.

As an European: nobody has this expectation, unless you're using some strange subreddit comment as a source of information.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#332

Post by jacquesm »

kyboren wrote: post #305
jacquesm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a one sided thing. The US has been allowed to do a lot of things under the NATO umbrella that it benefited from (such as: selling a vast quantity of arms). Soft power is a thing and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization came into being to deal with exactly the kind of situation that we are viewing today. To see the US bow out, and in fact threatening allies is duplicitous at best.

NATO came into being to deal with the USSR, which was the preeminent threat to all NATO members. The US wasn't expected just to come save Europe; European states had real military power and the will to bring it to bear against the US's main adversary. In a conflict with the USSR, the US could rely on Europe to fight with them. Very valuable. Today, US policymakers see China as the main adversary. But European states…

I set your house on fire, so maybe now you will take fire insurance more seriously?

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#333

Post by ptero »

Retric wrote: post #225
adventured wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US isn't going to get hyperinflation. It's going to get a Japan style heat death. More and more wealth concentrated into low yielding debt, rather than invested into growth, while purchasing power is chewed up by persistent currency debasement. Japan never did suffer real deflation (that was a lie), it suffered massive inflation: they debased the Yen to garbage levels, drastically chopping down the standard of li…

“There's no chance US will default on its debts, all it has to do is to print more money.” Trying to inflate away 40+ Trillion in debt would directly result in hyperinflation. > they debased the Yen to garbage levels Look at Yen to USD exchange rates and it’s clear they didn’t. “From 1991 to 2003, the Japanese economy, as measured by GDP, grew only 1.14% annually, while the average real growth rate between 2000 and 2…

It did not go into a hyperinflation after the WW2, when the US debt load as a share of GDP was even higher than today; and deflated in the same way US is likely to do it now (bond rates forced way below inflation with yield control).

I am not saying that the process will be pleasant for the US or its citizens. But it is not without precedent and is extremely unlikely to cause hyperinflation. My 2c.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#334

Post by rjzzleep »

jonkoops wrote: post #210
rjzzleep wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU threw all its baskets into a war it didn't need to fight, destroyed its energy independence, it's weapons, it's airdefense and huge parts of its air force. I don't think they have a lot of cards to play. There an interesting analysis on whether the EUs threats on financial markets actually bear any meaning here: https://x.com/Kathleen_Tyson_/status/2013314168250675456 Edit: March 2022 peace deal that Boris Joh…

It is a war we must fight now, and must continue to fight. It is a war against oppression, against autocrats squishing their population for servitude. If nobody steps up to protect Democratic values, and the freedom of the people for self-governance, it is a slippery slope to hell.

If you really needed to fight, what you would have done was build a couple nuclear power plants, build some factories using Russian resources that they were giving you cheap, churn out some weapons and THEN go for war. What it did instead was watch the US blow up it's pipeline, harakiri its own nuclear power reactors, rent mobile Norwegian LNG terminals and make itself completely dependent on American weapons and Energy.

This is all preformative nonsense of EU elites that despise the European public and call Trump daddy to continue riding the Eurocrat gravy train. It's actually good for Europe that this mess is coming to an end. But the price was way too high and unnecessary.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#335

Post by nonethewiser »

brookst wrote: post #12
bowmessage wrote: post #7

> $100 million Is that a lot? Seems relatively inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but perhaps a warning of larger moves to come.

It’s the symbolism more than direct financial impact. You get 100 moves like this and it starts to become real money.

It's not a symbolic move by the pension fund. It's all of the fund's US treasuries.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#336

Post by notahacker »

jacquesm wrote: post #332
kyboren wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NATO came into being to deal with the USSR, which was the preeminent threat to all NATO members. The US wasn't expected just to come save Europe; European states had real military power and the will to bring it to bear against the US's main adversary. In a conflict with the USSR, the US could rely on Europe to fight with them. Very valuable. Today, US policymakers see China as the main adversary. But European states…

I set your house on fire, so maybe now you will take fire insurance more seriously?

This, but with the US owning the penthouse suite above the apartments it set on fire...

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#337

Post by seanw444 »

colechristensen wrote: post #252
DustinEchoes wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s wishcasting. Some people just want to see dead Americans.

It's also stupid. A US civil war which went far enough to fragment the country would in actuality be a global WWIII and lead to billions of deaths.

And a new global leader, likely in the form of China. Which I'm sure everyone would see as an improvement. Right?

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#338

Post by busterarm »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #321
busterarm wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada needs cheaper cars than US manufacturers want to provide. US brand cars have all been going higher dollar and further up market in recent years. Quebec is famous for the "Quebec Special". Cars with manual everything. No AC. Manual windows. Completely stripped down to be as affordable/disposable as possible. Also the roads are absolute shit, they never wash off the salt, there used to be no inspections and titl…

> Canada needs cheaper cars than US manufacturers want to provide. So does the U.S.

That's an opinion. One I agree with in principal, but not reflected in sales figures.

Also I'd be willing to bet that if interest rates dropped, car purchasing would skyrocket even at current prices.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#339

Post by epistasis »

adventured wrote: post #136
epistasis wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "nearly limitless" source of borrowing, the limit is the gain in global wealth. The US has been siphoning off a huge chunk of world wealth by printing dollars to serve as the currency for that wealth. All the people complaining about "US Debt" and $26T of "net investment" or whatever don't realize that this is/was the benefit of the US being stable, strong, and friendly. When the US is unstable, weak, an…

The US is more stable than the powers of Europe (which have constant political upheavals, snap elections that completely remake the political landscape, etc). You're confusing Trump's mouth with how the US political system actually functions. Just because the US changes political direction, that doesn't equate to instability. Its aims are changing, like it or not, good or bad. The US deciding it wants Greenland is no…

> You're confusing Trump's mouth with how the US political system actually functions.

I'm not confusing anything, right now Trump's mouth IS the political system in the US. Republicans control every aspect of the government completely, all the way through to the checks of the US Supreme Court.

No Republican has enough backbone to stand up to Trump, and if they do gain a backbone to stand up to Trump at all, like MTG, they exit politics quickly. Thomas Massie is the closest to somebody who is standing up to Trump. If Republicans in the Senate were willing to stay in office yet defect from the party, that would be enough to stand up to Trump, but even that's not happening.

Right now, the US is in a position not unlike Imperial Japan, right before they launched an attack on the US, forcing the US into WW2. High Command wants somebody to stand up and stop the obviously bad action, but nobody is willing to make the short-term sacrifice for the long-term good.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#340

Post by nonethewiser »

lostlogin wrote: post #44
bowmessage wrote: post #7

> $100 million Is that a lot? Seems relatively inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but perhaps a warning of larger moves to come.

The other thread going on this topic says that Europe could sell about $10 trillion. That’s a lot, but also, it’s only a bit over 10 days trading at normal volumes (according to the numbers being discussed in this thread). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46692052

For reference, 25-30% of US treasuries are foreign owned. It's still a lot but I think people over-estimate how much of US debt is foreign owned.
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