Maybe not checkmate, but the bond market just slid a bishop across Trump's "3D" chess board

[Quixote1818]

and checked his king.

Fell free to add your own 3D chess metaphor.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Some discussion indicated we came near to a credit crunch until today's 10 year auction was surprisingly strong

The spread between the 10 year Treasury notes and other time spans had been widening alarmingly.

Further discussion indicated that tRump may have been more concerned about bonds because his plan is to drive interest rates down and cheapen the dollar to reduce federal government debt payments and provide more room for his richies tax cut extension.

[Quixote1818]

3. 100% nt

[Bluetus]

9. I think that is giving Trump credit for a lot more brainpower than he has ever shown

But I wouldn't be surprised that some of the evil people around him are thinking very much along those lines.

Any theories about the bond market -- and particularly T-bills -- must take into account that China hold a very large share of that -- just under $1 trillion or about 9% of our government bond debt (understanding that a big part of our federal debt is funded by the Social Security trust fund)

This is all pretty spooky stuff, with the Federal Reserve being the biggest holder of government bonds, paid for with "money" they created out of thin air, pretty much like Crypto except the taxpayers are supposed to bail them out whenever necessary.

Nonetheless, a 9% Chinese stake is not chopped liver. It may be enough to really mess with Trump. Without a doubt, the Chinese have gamed this out many times. Otherwise, they never would have bought so much of our debt.

Japan is the largest foreign holding with about $1.1 trillion. And taking this theory farther, we should note that after Trump started thrashing around randomly with tariffs, China, S. Korea, and Japan (all long-term wartime enemies) got together to consider a cooperative response. (S. Korea has about $125 billion of our debt.)

[Quixote1818]

5. We're just passengers on the crazy train and can't get off

Humor is the only way to deal with this approaching train wreck that may kill us too.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. (yawn, a troll showed up)

[dweller]

4. The de Adder opening

✌🏻