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There's a multitrillion-dollar black hole growing at the heart of the world's financial markets. Negative-yielding debt -- bonds worth less, not more, if held to maturity -- is spreading to more corners of the bond universe, destroying potential returns for investors and turning the system as we know it on its head. Now that it looks like sub-zero bonds are here to stay, there's even more hand-wringing about the effects for mom-and-pop savers, pensioners, investors, buyout firms and governments.
[...] Negative-yielding debt topped $13 trillion in June, having doubled since December, and now makes up around 25% of global debt. In Germany, 85% of the government bond market is under water. That means investors effectively pay the German government 0.2% for the privilege of buying its benchmark bonds; the government keeps 2 euros for every 1,000 euros borrowed over a period of 10 years. The U.S. is one of the few outliers, with none of its $16 trillion debt pile yielding less than zero, but across the world, strategists are warning that the problem may get worse.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @02:19PM
at the supermarket this week berries came into season and were about 2/3 of last week's price, and 1/4 to 1/2 of two months ago.
at the gas pump, it has at least one local minimum weekly
in the housing market, you want the big Chicago-style stuff with places going for 1m one year and 150k the next? Or will smaller deflations at the city level, lasting 2-3 years, suffice? Lots in North America. Local to me, detached homes dropped about 10% year over year, this year, and about 4% the year before.