[brydic1]

The Chinese government which may have bought aprox 13 billion dollars of 30 yr US Treasuries in April of this year finds they are presently worth only a little over 11 billion dollars today. So much for the safety and reliability of the U S Treasuries. To lose near 2 billion dollars on a 13 billion investment in two months on the the most gold plated investment in the world would give me a heart attack.

[JasonC]

If you lend to the treasury at short term you can't lose a cent. (Right now won't make much of anything either).

If you lend longer term you contract to get that rate for the whole period; if rates rise you get paid later. You will get the contracted rate over the whole period. When in that period you get it, depends on the path of interest rates during that period - but *that* you get it, does not.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Actually, they are “worth” what they were when they were bought. The ‘present value’ is lower because interest rates have gone up, but if they hold to maturity, at the moment there is no suggestion the U.S. will default on paying back the bonds.

My treasury funds went up quite a bit over the previous months, and have gone down recently, because of the changes in underlying interest rates.