Live data from Hacker News

Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

reuters.com

731–740 of 857 posts

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#731
post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Europe is unable to support Ukraine enough to change the course of war. It's not unable. There is little political will in Europe and USA to support Ukraine with arms to the victory. They support Ukraine just enough to not loose. It's in their interest to grind russian meat and tanks in Ukraine as long as possible.

The US lacks political will to support Ukraine (mostly) because it's a conflict ten thousand miles away. Europe should have a much more immediate interest in Ukraine not losing.

Sadly, Europe isn't one entity and the interest wanes the further the countries are. Anyone neighboring Russia is, predictably, helping a lot while also arming themselves. Central Europe somewhat less, and the Mediterranean countries seem to concern themselves mostly with other topics. Seems like the threat should become more substantial before the whole continent awakens.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re assuming the people in charge are sane, rationale, and value past decisions that have worked out. It’s quite clear with the now likely permanent damage to NATO this isn’t the case.

You're assuming NATO is somehow critical for the US. It is not. NATO is critical for the European powers (those not named Russia). The US doesn't require it. The US doesn't need to defend Europe any longer. And it's clear the Europeans don't want the US there, so it works out great. Europe can boost its defense spending by ~$300 billion to make up the difference, or not, whatever they choose to do is up to them. The…

- USA will be free to enjoy Chinese submarines coming via GIUK gap (if POTUS keep doing what they are, these submarines will probably base directly in UK and Norway).

- If EU gets some more vertebrate leaders (something that tends to happen in times like this even in the most spineless countries), the first thing they will do is probably go get some allies in the Pacific to make up for this - and Pacific is much more sensitive to US.

Of course, all of this is phenomenally stupid and everyone will be far worse off.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#733

For context foreign total holdings are around 9T and domestic around 30T. Uk and japan are the largest foreign holders at around 1.7T between them. This is a 100M divestment.

Depending upon how you cut it the Cayman Islands are probably the largest at around 1.8T.

But that's just American hedge funds playing in an unregulated country so you could call that domestic as well

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy. The people have spoken. Americans wanted this.

Can people quit with this stupid argument? A thin majority of Americans voted for this during the election. If you follow the polls, the vast majority of American currently don't want this. Just stop with this "dumb Americans" dur dur nonsense. Those of us who have our heads screwed on straight are so sick of being blamed for this. The same thing could happen at any time in any country.

This is not true. First of all, this is the SECOND time this clown is elected.

Secondly, 77,302,580 americans voted for trump. That is one in three.

I am sorry you get blamed for this, I know you are not to blame. But you have to see how it looks from the outside, given the incredible effects it has had (most importantly, making millions lose faith in the world. And who knows what more to come.)

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. If anything, the opposite is true. Citizens who've never protested in their lives are now in the streets. Off-year elections have had record turnouts. 154–155 million people voted in the 2024 presidential election; t…

> 154–155 million people voted in the 2024 presidential election; that's 63-65% of eligible voters, the second highest percentage in the past 100 years.

And then trump got elected which is the reason of the crisis right now.

Perhaps American people wanted this?

Also, I think that America and Russia's probably the only biggest difference right now is protests and yea, I looked at some protests in America and how people are getting shot and even one veteran got detained who worked in iraq war for 3 days and was stripped naked and wasn't allowed to say anything and this happened a long time ago because of ICE

All because he looked brown. You could fight or die for the country & they would come to haunt you.

Veterans are calling ICE against the protestors even worse than how Veterans acted during the wars towards Iraqi citizens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y91VgKlJfLI

I have consistently called it out but most Americans from what I can gather want to desperately fit in the two boxes and not have independent support and especially when one party's effectively doing something like this. Bi-partisanship had always ended & you can't vote for anyone more than these two parties (one of which is causing an active war in greenland but the other party's better in this context but its also complicated and they still have very much an influence caused by lobbying)

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stop relying on America to fight the Russians for them, That's a very uncharitable take. Europe relies on NATO to fight the Russians. Of course it does. There is no alternative, and the US would never allow other credible alliances to form. Because why would they? It's certainly not in their interest. It's good that Europe spends more in security, and it's good that Europe seems to be serious about Ukraine. However…

Until recently, most NATO members were not meeting their commitment to spending 2% minimum GDP on defense. They were demonstrably externalizing their defense costs onto the US.

Well yes, since the commitment was to spend 2% by 2025.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#738

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.

If the US starts a war, they immediately collapse down the safety rankings.

Also there are other tax havens.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#739
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US is more stable than the powers of Europe ....... You're confusing Trump's mouth with how the US political system actually functions. Eh? If the US political system was stable and fit for purpose, the US would have got rid of the wannabe dictator by now; or at least held his power in check. EDIT: Amusingly, I'm being downvoted by a class of American who refuses to believe their way might not be the best after…

As a US citizen, I agree with you that if the US was a stable power we would have gotten rid of the dictator for good after the first term. And most definitely after trying to usurp an entire election. Or worst case after he issued pardons to all people involved in any way to usurp the election, including many hardened criminals. After all these things, even if we get control of the US government and place it into st…

> I don't think that the people downvoting you are necessarily other US citizens. ....... sleeper agent bots come out to try to shift discussion

Interesting point. I (very likely) stand corrected.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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

That does not mean it is "symbolic". It is very real choice made out of rational reasoning. There is nothing to suggest it was not meant to be a symbolic gesture.

Post reply on HN