Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries • Hacker News Board

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#621

Post by PlatoIsADisease » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC

alphazard wrote: post #94

afavour wrote: post #42

It's symbolism. But it's important symbolism. Far more notable, I think, is Macron saying this morning that Europe needs more investment from China. Canada signing a deal with China to allow their cars to be sold in the country. It's all a sliding slope until it reaches a breaking point and falls off like a cliff. EDIT: to quote the Canadian PN earlier today: “American hegemony in particular helped provide public goo…

> It's symbolism. It's not. This is where the financial rubber meets the road, actions have consequences, and the rest of the world is looking at the US as increasingly unlikely to pay above inflation on its debts. The people managing the pension funds (if they are acting in good faith) really want to generate yield, and really want to preserve capital for the Danish people. They don't want to symbolically do those t…

> This is where the financial rubber meets the road, actions have consequences

This is $100M. No one will notice it.

Be a bit realistic here.

Maybe you have no skin in the game, so you can be idealistic.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#622

Post by sealeck » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

dmitrygr wrote: post #469

jacquesm wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it as a bowshot. There are many more such 10 to 100 billion funds and they can move at the drop of a hat if they have to.

Can. Won't. There is no safer place to stash money in the world. Nobody buys treasuries for the fun of it. They do it since that is the safest place to stash money long term.

The assumption that treasuries is safe depends upon the guarantor (the US government) being reliable. Currently this is ahistorically far from being the case and therefore people are investigating other places to park capital.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#623

Post by qbit42 » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:19 PM UTC

lynx97 wrote: post #422

soerxpso wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it interesting how people say "The US" to refer to groups under the US government that are often completely at odds with the interests of the actual US public. There are virtually no Americans who want our government to be acting in the interests of arms manufacturers except the arms manufacturers themselves and the politicians they pay.

C'mon, what a lame excuse. Well then, show us that democracy works and vote for a goverment which doesn't? If I follow your reasoning, you've just demonstrated that democracy is a failure, because the US government acts in the interests of arms manufacturers since a very long time, no matter if Dems or Reps are in power.

Our democracy is clearly disfunctional. I believe corporate money has played a big role to make it worse.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#624

Post by eli_gottlieb » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:23 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #161

hightrix wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any criticisms to the parent comment? As an American, they seem pretty spot on to the current climate. I'd argue we've never been closer to civil war than we are today[0], primarily due to trumps regime invading cities around the country, kidnapping citizens utilizing a bounty program, and killing people in concentration camps. Ediot: [0] - Since the last civil war. I thought that was obvious, but it seem…

This comment: A new civil war that drives the US to fragment into several independent regions over the course of the next ~five years would kind of be the best scenario from a global perspective. is nutty.

I don't think it's all that nutty, considering that large regional blocs in the United States basically voted against all this and have less than zero desire to be dragged along for the ride, having our lives ruined for someone else's insanity.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#625

Post by _carbyau_ » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:24 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #261

epolanski wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no chance US will default on its debts, all it has to do is to print more money. Inflation may spirale, but it's going to be a US citizens problems (as well as US bond holders) in terms of inflation and budget cuts.

As far as I know, Trump is unique among American leaders in having mused stupidly in public about not paying all holders of US Treasury debt. But I'm sure he would not do anything crazy. That's just inconceivable.

> That's just inconceivable.

The finance world:

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#626

Post by bluGill » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:26 PM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #468

jonathanstrange wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we witness seems to be a lack of control due to a vicious feedback loop that eliminates dissenters and reasonable, moderate people from positions of power. The longer it stays active, the worse it becomes. In other authoritarian systems this is not so noticeable because their leaders act more rationally to begin with, although they tend to lose their grip on reality in the long run, too.

That's definitely going on. There's also something that I've heard called "reactionary centrism:" a feedback loop of people who think that truth lies in the middle between the two extremes, and also that assumes that no mainstream position in a political faction can itself be the "extreme." And that if they find that one political faction is doing something that seems extreme to them, that in the interests of fairnes…

Right vs left makes the assumption there are two sides / options. I have long thought that the 'left' was too extreem socialist - that doesn't mean I think current 'right' is any better.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#627

Post by epistasis » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:26 PM UTC

everyone wrote: post #618

epistasis wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely it. People in the US have been living with the insanity of Trump for so long that they have become numb to it, and don't realize just how crazy and out of bounds every day is now. We continue on, because we have to, but it's hard to reevaluate everything every single day because it's so crazy. Europe and the rest of the world are making completely rational decisions in response to the utter self-des…

The people of the USA really remind me of the people of Russia: totally depoliticized. I think in the USA many people are really focused on a pointless culture war yet aren't politically active at all.

I think it's not so much the people that have been Russified as the institutions themselves. The media, big law firms, big corporations, have all given in to bullying and handed their power over to the authoritarian. Universities are on the cusp of doing so too. Even the Democratic Party has leadership so weak that in the current environment they will only talk about affordability and healthcare.

The media the public consumes only gives them culture war BS to work with, though. It started with Fox News, and that eventually cowed the rest of the media to give in to Fox News framing on every topic, since Fox News was so successful at winning eyeballs.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#628

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:34 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #579

munksbeer wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this response. Surely you are aware that Denmark doesn't come as a little isolated package? Your country, the US, gets a group deal. Your allies in Europe have sent soldiers to die for you very recently. Including, little Denmark. On the back of pax Americana, supported by your allies, you have continued to live as the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen. That system did not arise out of…

> I've seen you hand wave this away (because of course you would) suggesting the US was rich already. How is it "hand waving?" Whether or not the U.S. has gained "long-term economic advantages" from its leadership of NATO is a key factual question. It's the central premise of your paragraph about "pax Americana." You can't simply assume that fact is true. The relative gaps in GDP per capita between the U.S., Denmark…

Let's just quote you then, for avoidance of doubt:

"Denmark isn’t an “ally.” An alliance is a mutual relationship. Denmark offers the U.S. nothing. "

You either wrote that or someone temporarily borrowed your laptop but as far as I can see there are no third options. Unless of course you have some creative definition of what you consider to be an ally but until only a short while ago the EU was given a pretty concise description of that word by the US and we all agreed on that definition.

This isn't about money or some kind of ridiculous quid-pro-quo, it is about principle.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#629

Post by eli_gottlieb » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:35 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #391

seanw444 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

> Osama bin Ladin won. The goals he had when he attacked America have been entirely achieved. Americans got stupid and became susceptible to the society changing effects of terrorism. He got us to destroy ourselves.

I think one of the effects of American narcissism and stupidity is not understanding that Osama bin Laden's primary goal was to replace the Saudi royal family with a Caliphate of his design, and no, he never actually accomplished that. He wasn't about us.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#630

Post by eli_gottlieb » Tue, Jan 20, 2026, 11:37 PM UTC

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?

Because real evil is boring.