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Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

reuters.com

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Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#531

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

boricj wrote: post #360
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US and France are both nuclear armed, including nuclear armed submarines, which are the ultimate defence deterrent. It's hard to see any country wanting to get into conventional war with China, regardless of size of army and airforce - even the US is not going to do it unless actually attacked. At the end of the day if China seizes Taiwan (something Trump has made more likely by his seizing of Venezuala, now talk…

> The US and France are both nuclear armed, including nuclear armed submarines, which are the ultimate defence deterrent. Except for France's ASMP-A nuclear warning shot (which is not a tactical option by the way), all other independent European nuclear options (French or British SSBNs) are not only strategic, but they imply wiping entire countries off the map. All options also depend on whether the French President…

I was really thinking of a standalone Europe's deterrence against attack by Russia or China, not using them against the US!

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#532

Post by _DeadFred_ »

epolanski wrote: post #429
mikkupikku wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NATO members aren't particularly large customers for American weapons. Poland is the largest, but is dwarfed by Japan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Ukraine is receiving a bunch of weapons, but that math isn't so straight forward (they're getting a ton of old stock) and they don't have much choice anyway.

Europeans have spent 80B $ in 2024 and 68 in 2025 on US weapons. That's not peanuts.

Total US goods exports were $2,083 in 2025. This number is 4% of all of our exported goods for the year, so actually a pretty big number when it comes to national economics. People keep talking like the US can throw away 4% here, 2% there, likes it's nothing. The same people said last week 'Trump is meme'ing about Greenland'. Now they are saying 'the hit to our economy won't be too bad' which is as truthful of a statement as 'meme'ing about Greenland' was and based on the same 'defend Trump' and not reality.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#533

Post by wolvesechoes »

epolanski wrote: post #424
SR2Z wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare the strength of the militaries of Europe with the United States and you'll see how that claim is believable. That's changing, but for many years European nations did not spend very much on their militaries. A large part of why is the protection of NATO and US bases in various countries.

No, that's the logic of a 15 years old playing call of duty. Europe has spent less on military because after the cold war and still today, it never had any realistic threat. Russia can't even take few miles off Ukraine. The only realistic threat is the US, which is an ally, in theory. Now a threat.

> Russia can't even take few miles off Ukraine

And yet Europe is unable to support Ukraine enough to change the course of war.

Which is the direct cause of the current situation. If Europe was so strong and ready, war in Ukraine would be over, Russia was defeated, and US wouldn't even think of doing what it is doing.

Everything else is copium.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#534

Post by alephnerd »

moogly wrote: post #307
corimaith wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every single one of Europe's prized industries are in the crosshairs of China's industrial ambitions.

What "prized industries" are still there other than automakers? They're already boned, they just haven't accepted it. China now leads the world on R&D and hard science, and is already making strides in chip design and chip making. How far off do you think a Chinese ASML is? Two decades at most? Or more like one? And what would be the solution? I think we've all learned that protectionism doesn't work.

> What "prized industries" are still there other than automakers?

Automation Engineering, Materials Engineering, Biopharmaceuticals, Automotive Engineering (already mentioned), and Genomics.

China has made tremendous gains, but that should not undermine the fact that the fundamentals still exist within the EU, but Europeans on the Internet seem to vaccilate between chest-thumping Euro-nationalism (which is dead in the water and easily disprovable) or defeatism (which doesn't make sense and is also easily disprovable).

> How far off do you think a Chinese ASML is

1. ASML's EUV/DUV IP is owned and airgapped from the rest of ASML by the US DoE's JV with ASML called Cymer

2. Around 5-7 years, which is a loss from a Chinese NatSec standpoint and shows the Sullivan doctrine is still intact (keep China 1-2 generations behind the collective west in semiconductor fabrication capabilities).

> And what would be the solution? I think we've all learned that protectionism doesn't work.

The EU never actually tried protectionism or industrial policy. When most other countries and trade blocs were flouting the WTO, the EU kept trying to prop it up in order to negotiate with the US.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#535

Post by xienze »

triceratops wrote: post #256
xienze wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US used to be a much more homogeneous country, which certainly makes it a lot easier for everyone to be on the same page because of shared cultural values. That has changed dramatically in the past few decades and with it, places where Americans can find common ground. Other western countries are going down the exact same path, just a bit behind us.

I love how racism gets snuck into everything these days. No, homogeneity doesn't cause happiness.[1] And the US was always less homogenous than other "western" countries. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Japan#Suicide_proble...

> No, homogeneity doesn't cause happiness.

Funny though how all those European countries everyone on HN and Reddit point to as "how things should be" are all pretty ethnically and culturally homogenous, though that's changing rapidly. Interestingly, cracks are starting to appear.

> And the US was always less homogenous than other "western" countries.

The US was 85-90% white in 1965. That's pretty homogenous.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#536

Post by wolvesechoes »

jacquesm wrote: post #431
epolanski wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's the logic of a 15 years old playing call of duty. Europe has spent less on military because after the cold war and still today, it never had any realistic threat. Russia can't even take few miles off Ukraine. The only realistic threat is the US, which is an ally, in theory. Now a threat.

That, and as the main theater for two world wars Europe is - and likely will remain - sick of war. We'd rather avoid it, unless it comes knocking on our door, and then, reluctantly, we'll do what needs to be done.

[flagged]

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#537

Post by busterarm »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #376
busterarm wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People in the U.S. have to own a car. There are no inexpensive options any longer. Car loans would be ticking time bomb on the U.S. economy. All it takes are waves of layoffs and therefore droves of unemployed people saddled with car loans.

US car sales are pretty consistent between 12mil & 17mil per year going back to the mid 70s, which spans a few recessions at this point...

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#538

Post by colechristensen »

seanw444 wrote: post #486
colechristensen wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to ask yourself, compared to current US leadership, is China actually all that bad? US is being driven by the personal whims of a deteriorating tyrant, Congress is allowing it and the courts are only doing a tiny amount of checking his power. You can't just say "despite everything happening we're still the good guys and China and Russia are the bad guys!" Osama bin Ladin won. The goals he had when he attacke…

> US is being driven by the personal whims of a deteriorating tyrant Why does Hacker News make Trump sound so much more interesting than he really is?

He's sent his personal police force to my city to rip people out of their cars and arrest them for being brown, not to mention murdering a lady who seconds before was smiling and waving officers to go around. In no way is this an exaggeration.

He's trying to use economic warfare to annex Greenland.

The most powerful man in the world is a delusional dementia patient and egomaniac being allowed to do literally anything he wants.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#539

Post by mikkupikku »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #532
epolanski wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans have spent 80B $ in 2024 and 68 in 2025 on US weapons. That's not peanuts.

Total US goods exports were $2,083 in 2025. This number is 4% of all of our exported goods for the year, so actually a pretty big number when it comes to national economics. People keep talking like the US can throw away 4% here, 2% there, likes it's nothing. The same people said last week 'Trump is meme'ing about Greenland'. Now they are saying 'the hit to our economy won't be too bad' which is as truthful of a stat…

[flagged]

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#540

Post by colechristensen »

nebula8804 wrote: post #473
colechristensen wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why? The US is only 5% of the world population. If others successfully disentangle themselves before the civil war begins they can take steps to isolate themselves. Yes it won't be as peaceful of a world but I don't see how it is certain to end up in a WWIII scenario.

Do you think the newly minted American Balkans are going to be peaceful and well governed? And won't, say, try to annex parts of canada, mexico, greenland, central american or island nations, etc? Do you think they will be lead by well reasoned and insightful peoples that won't escalate to a nuclear civil war and that no foreign power will try to intervene, take sides, or try to grab some real estate as well?

You think the most well funded and capable military in the world would sit idle and please itself with keeping conflict contained?

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