Free Republic

About one-third of all municipal bonds issued in 2024 and outstanding through 2024 are from sanctuary jurisdictions, concentrated in large cities and states, such as California, New York, and Massachusetts...The absence of truly objective bond ratings or comprehensive risk assessments for sanctuary jurisdictions may place investors, particularly individual investors, who own a significant share of this market, at a disadvantage.

Finance minister Katsunobu Kato hints that country’s more than $1tn in Treasuries gives it leverage in negotiations Japan’s finance minister has publicly identified the country’s more than $1tn holdings of US Treasuries as a “card” in its trade negotiations with the Trump administration, in a rare baring of teeth by America’s closest ally in Asia. Speaking during a television interview on Friday, Katsunobu Kato was asked whether Japan would use its traditional stance as a non-seller of Treasuries as a tool in trade talks with Washington. “It does exist as a card,” said Kato, adding that “whether or not we...

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose Monday as investors weighed concerns over tariffs and comments by President Donald Trump criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was 8 basis points higher at 4.401%. The 2-year Treasury yield was 1 basis point lower to 3.788%. One basis point is equal to 0.01%. Yields and prices move in opposite directions. The moves come after Trump on Friday levied another salvo at Powell for not lowering interest rates. The president vocalized his discontent with the Fed chair’s economic policy leadership during a question-and-answer session with reporters....

Gold gains some ground despite U.S. dollar’s rebound as traders focus on the continuation of the pullback in Treasury yields. From the technical point of view, gold needs to settle above the resistance at $3235 – $3245 to gain additional upside momentum in the near term. Silver remains stuck below the 50 MA at $32.51 as traders wait for additional catalysts. If silver moves back below the $32.00 level, it will head towards the nearest support at $31.45 – $31.75. Platinum tests new highs as rally continues amid tariff optimism. Platinum is heading towards the nearest resistance at $960 –...

KEY POINTS -On Friday, falling bond prices pushed the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield briefly above 4.5%, up from 3.99% just a week prior. -The ICE U.S. Dollar Index hit its lowest level in three years. “The market is re-assessing the structural attractiveness of the dollar as the world’s global reserve currency and is undergoing a process of rapid de-dollarization,” Deutsche Bank strategist George Saravelos said in a note to clients Friday. But on Friday, falling bond prices pushed the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield briefly above 4.5%, up from 3.99% just a week prior. Meanwhile, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index hit...

Global markets have reached a day of reckoning. This has been decades in the making. Now, massive changes are sweeping the world. No, what we’re seeing in the markets is not “normal.” Instead, this is the: Moment precious metal investors have been waiting for Birth of a multipolar world order (U.S. is no longer the sole superpower) Start of a very uncertain period for bonds and fiat currency Peak of globalization In short, you no longer have the luxury of relying on the old rules, the old way of thinking. It’s time for a new playbook. Bond Outlook: Murky Since...

U.S. Treasury investors were left bruised on Wednesday despite a temporary pause in U.S. tariffs, as some funds were forced to sell bonds in a dash for cash while others called into question the bonds’ status as the world’s safest asset. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes, which had jumped to a seven-week high, maintained higher levels after President Trump said on Wednesday he authorized a 90-day pause for most of his new tariffs but was raising the tariff rate for China to 125%, effective immediately. An afternoon auction of 10-year Treasury bonds, which had been a focus of the market,...

Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid growing concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. On Wednesday, the yield - or interest rate - on US bonds spiked sharply to touch the highest level since February at 4.5%. The government sell bonds - essentially an IOU - to raise money from financial markets and these are viewed as a safe investment, meaning the US normally does not need to offer high rates to attract buyers. Trump has gone ahead with sweeping tariffs on goods being imported into the US, while Washington's trade war...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries extended heavy losses on Wednesday in a sign investors are selling even their safest assets as a global market rout unleashed by U.S. tariffs takes an unnerving turn towards distress and a dash for the safety of cash. "This is beyond fundamentals right now. This is about liquidity," said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, the globe's benchmark safe-haven anchor, was up 20 basis points and rising in Asia - a remarkable move in a time zone where it's usually fairly steady. At 4.46% the yield is...

A key Treasury auction this week could test one of the central planks of President Donald Trump's tariff strategy as markets reel amid the largest swings in Treasury yields in more than two decades. President Trump has insisted that his tariff plans, which will impose sweeping levies on goods imported from virtually every nation in the world, paid for by American companies and consumers, will ultimately benefit the domestic economy with lower interest rates even they slow growth and stoke inflation along the way. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, wants to see more evidence of their impact on the world's biggest...

China responds by selling another $50BN in TSY. Oh btw, the yield on 10Ys is now almost unchanged from Liberation Day!

President Donald Trump raised eyebrows Friday by sharing a video on Truth Social that claims he purposefully crashed the stock market to "push cash into treasuries." Trump's timing was especially provocative because his rollout of tariffs the previous day resulted in a multi-trillion dollar market wipeout.

Investors abroad sold longer term Treasuries for three consecutive months, a sign of central bankers reducing their reliance on the U.S. as a financial buffer. In January, foreigners sold a net $13.3 billion of U.S. notes and bonds that had more than one year to maturity, the latest Treasury data show. It comes after $49.69 billion was sold in December, following sales of $34.41 billion in the month of U.S. elections, November. Global central banks represent a big chunk of foreign demand. Before the back-to-back net selling of the world’s safest debt, foreigners had kept buying for 15 straight months....

*** On Tuesday, Trump issued a memorandum entitled “Ensuring the Enforcement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c),” and directed it to “the heads of executive departments and agencies.” The order opens by describing the way activists, using donated and government-granted funds, have been obtaining sweeping injunctions from carefully selected district court judges (that is, those seated in forums friendly to Democrats). With the judges’ help, the activists have been ” functionally inserting themselves into the executive policy making process and therefore undermining the democratic process.”...it’s mandatory, although the government never seems to have bothered pushing for security before: The...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES Subject: Ensuring the Enforcement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c) In recent weeks, activist organizations fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars in donations and sometimes even Government grants have obtained sweeping injunctions far beyond the scope of relief contemplated by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, functionally inserting themselves into the executive policy making process and therefore undermining the democratic process. This anti-democratic takeover is orchestrated by forum-shopping organizations that repeatedly bring meritless suits, used for fundraising and political grandstanding, without any repercussions when they fail. Taxpayers are forced...

EU defence spending plans are driving German, French, and Italian bond yields higher. Japan’s are soaring too. The dollar is sinking: what does it all mean for gold and silver? A graph. This week, the end-February decline in gold and silver prices appear to be over, with a recovery based on a firm undertone. In early European trading this morning, gold was $2,920, up $60 from last Friday’s close, and silver $32.60, up $1.50. Despite the recent transfers of physical gold into New York, there still appears to be a bear squeeze in place. Look at how Comex Open Interest...

U.S. Treasuries are now outperforming stocks since Donald Trump was elected President, and some strategists say there’s room for those gains to run. A Bloomberg gauge of U.S. sovereign debt has returned 2.1 per cent since the Nov. 5 vote, beating a gain of 1.6 per cent from the S&P 500 index including reinvested dividends. While long-end Treasuries declined on Tuesday after Trump imposed new 25 per cent trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the prospect of further Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts is seen giving bonds a further tailwind. Stocks meanwhile are being sold, as the outlook for global growth...

The deflation-fueled outperformance of Chinese bonds has lured in a Tokyo-based investor for the first time. A team that oversees investment in foreign government bonds at Asset Management One started buying China’s debt in October and has since boosted exposure to the country’s interest-rate risk, Hikaru Tanaka, fund manager at the Tokyo-based company, said in an interview on Friday. China’s economic struggles involving excessive debt and real estate "are what Japan experienced in the 1990s,” Tanaka said. "Our long-term view is that it’s inevitable for China to follow the path of Japan.” China’s government bonds handed investors a return of...

@DOGE, a single district judge has issued a ruling blocking the executive branch from access to Treasury data. There’s a simple fix: DOJ should demand injunction bonds. This will be a repeat problem for the Trump administration, just like it was in the first term, unless something is done to rein in frivolous injunctions. Activist judges could single-handedly gum up the entire Trump/DOGE agenda. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), judges can issue injunctions “ONLY IF” the suing party posts a bond to cover potential damages if they’re wrong. But guess what? This rule is hardly used! When I...

Hunter Biden is once again embroiled in mor controversy as newly surfaced bank records and corporate documents link him to a fraudulent bond transaction involving Burnham Asset Management. The firm, tied to a multi-million-dollar securities fraud scheme, saw Biden’s business partners arrested and convicted while Hunter himself avoided accountability. The fraud centered on a scheme to defraud the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe out of tens of millions of dollars. Hunter’s former business partners, Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, were convicted for misappropriating funds meant for the tribe.