• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Treasury bloodbath soaks top fund managers

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
By Jennifer Ablan - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors have been blindsided by one financial catastrophe after another over the last 18 months, but throughout the tumult, the government bond market has been their friend.

Until now.

A brutal drop in long-dated Treasury prices has caught even the best money managers off guard -- in some cases wiping out as much as 60 percent of the gains they booked in last year's huge rally in U.S. Treasuries.

The Vanguard Group, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Hoisington Investment Management have seen their government funds down anywhere between 10 percent and 30 percent, as record amounts of debt flood the market to pay for the swelling budget deficit.

What's stunning about the portfolio declines is the swift plunge in Treasury prices within a short period of time despite the Federal Reserve's buyback purchases intended to hold down interest rates. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields have surged to levels not seen in more than six months, resulting in meaningful losses for many portfolios.

The 10-year T-note and 30-year Treasury bond are down 8.58 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in terms of price for the year to date.

"If I were clairvoyant and knew we were going to have a sell-off of this magnitude, I would've been all in cash, but I'm not," said Van Hoisington, whose flagship Wasatch-Hoisington U.S. Treasury Fund is down more than 20 percent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE55468F20090605
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Now why in the world would investors be dumping their US Government debt investments? :shock:

Can any of you liberals explain this to me?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Question? What would happen if Central Banks were done away with, and governments printed their own money?

In the US there was not noticeable inflation (except for during the Civil war), until after 1913. (from what I have heard)

Central banks all over the world have printed huge amounts of money, and the real economy is not strong enough for all this money to be absorbed... so, it's going into stocks and real assets such as commodities. It's a mistake what they are doing. It's giving short-term pleasure, but there's long-term pain as we are going to have much higher inflation, much higher interest rates and a worse economy down the road.

The American bond market is already beginning to go down dramatically as people realise that the American government has to sell huge amount of bonds, and secondly, there is going to be inflation, serious inflation, as it was always in the past when you had governments printing huge amounts of money.
 
Top