4 ms·

Russia Sells 80% of Its US Treasuries

40 points by gdsdfe 8y ago

madeuptempacct 8y ago
"Russia dumps over $90 billion of Treasuries (80% of Russian held US Treasuries) in April and May as holdings collapse from near $100 billion to just $9 billion" out of 11,000 billion issued (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States#/media/File:Estimated_ownership_of_treasury_securities_by_year.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_St...) Boohoo, 1% - this is purely symbolic in terms of economic impact on the US.
- gdsdfe 8y ago
  The question is : do they know something?
  - madeuptempacct 8y ago
    Not necessarily - China and Russia are both trying to get off the dollar as the international currency, thus the gold accumulation and potential future announcements of dollars being "fake money."
    - mamon 8y ago
      The plan is obvious, but the real question is: can they succeed? Russian economic power is negligible but if China stops accepting payments in USD for all the stuff they export then that could do a lot of damage.
      - madeuptempacct 8y ago
        China also still relies on the US and its allies as a market - I don't think that aspect of it is overplayed, though it's been a while since I looked up actual numbers. And yes, Russia is a non-factor in all this. They would be irrelevant if it wasn't for nukes. Can't believe they are surrendering their space launch monopoly so easily.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
hsienmaneja 8y ago
Looking historically, there were periods where interest rates remained low for a long period of time. How long can we afford to hold up bonds going forward? Such a question has been asked by the zero hedge and other pessimist crowd for at least the past 15 years of this bull market in bonds. At a basic game strategy level, you might assume that Russia either has good info or has been deceived. Thus one could bet that we are at an inflection point with bonds, with a move away in either direction. A look at the long term 30 year interest rate chart we are at long term downtrend. So a trader may use a simple strategy, by playing direction or volatility away from that downtrend line.
baybal2 8y ago
Most likely, Russian state is simply running out of cash. This is the most simple rational explanation that is most likely to be true
wildfire 8y ago
Having never heard of goldseek.com, and there being no links (I could perceive) to any authoritative source: 1. Is this actually true? 2. Why should this actually matter? Aren't reserve banks (or central banks) supposed to hold a basket of currencies and commodities anyway?
PhilWright 8y ago
Putin settings aside some cash for his future retirement?
dredmorbius 8y ago
Cash-crunch in Russia? Avoiding asset freeze?
z-tech 8y ago
This is not a credible news source.
bradknowles 8y ago
Here’s the CNN article on the subject: http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_72087daf9f37f88c688f2fd36fc28a3f http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_72087daf9f37f88c688f2fd36fc... Thanks to the text-only CNN story that was linked a few stories down!
nodefourtytwo 8y ago
Not sure about how it works, but if they sold that much US Debt, who bought it?
gdsdfe 8y ago
There's a CNN story about this : https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/30/investing/russia-us-debt-treasury/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/30/investing/russia-us-debt-tr...

40 points by gdsdfe 8y ago

"Russia dumps over $90 billion of Treasuries (80% of Russian held US Treasuries) in April and May as holdings collapse from near $100 billion to just $9 billion" out of 11,000 billion issued (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States#/media/File:Estimated_ownership_of_treasury_securities_by_year.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_St...) Boohoo, 1% - this is purely symbolic in terms of economic impact on the US.

gdsdfe 8y ago
The question is : do they know something?
- madeuptempacct 8y ago
  Not necessarily - China and Russia are both trying to get off the dollar as the international currency, thus the gold accumulation and potential future announcements of dollars being "fake money."
  - mamon 8y ago
    The plan is obvious, but the real question is: can they succeed? Russian economic power is negligible but if China stops accepting payments in USD for all the stuff they export then that could do a lot of damage.
    - madeuptempacct 8y ago
      China also still relies on the US and its allies as a market - I don't think that aspect of it is overplayed, though it's been a while since I looked up actual numbers. And yes, Russia is a non-factor in all this. They would be irrelevant if it wasn't for nukes. Can't believe they are surrendering their space launch monopoly so easily.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

hsienmaneja 8y ago

Looking historically, there were periods where interest rates remained low for a long period of time. How long can we afford to hold up bonds going forward? Such a question has been asked by the zero hedge and other pessimist crowd for at least the past 15 years of this bull market in bonds. At a basic game strategy level, you might assume that Russia either has good info or has been deceived. Thus one could bet that we are at an inflection point with bonds, with a move away in either direction. A look at the long term 30 year interest rate chart we are at long term downtrend. So a trader may use a simple strategy, by playing direction or volatility away from that downtrend line.

baybal2 8y ago

Most likely, Russian state is simply running out of cash. This is the most simple rational explanation that is most likely to be true

wildfire 8y ago

Having never heard of goldseek.com, and there being no links (I could perceive) to any authoritative source: 1. Is this actually true? 2. Why should this actually matter? Aren't reserve banks (or central banks) supposed to hold a basket of currencies and commodities anyway?

PhilWright 8y ago

Putin settings aside some cash for his future retirement?

dredmorbius 8y ago

Cash-crunch in Russia? Avoiding asset freeze?

z-tech 8y ago

This is not a credible news source.

bradknowles 8y ago

Here’s the CNN article on the subject: http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_72087daf9f37f88c688f2fd36fc28a3f http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_72087daf9f37f88c688f2fd36fc... Thanks to the text-only CNN story that was linked a few stories down!

nodefourtytwo 8y ago

Not sure about how it works, but if they sold that much US Debt, who bought it?

gdsdfe 8y ago

There's a CNN story about this : https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/30/investing/russia-us-debt-treasury/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/30/investing/russia-us-debt-tr...