Investors buy $32 billion in Treasury bills for no yield (4-week T-bills)

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: Marketwatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The Treasury Department sold $32 billion in four-week bills Tuesday at a yield of zero, implying investors purely wanted the assurance that they would get their principal back. Investors bid $128 billion at the auction, more than four times the amount available. Yields on one-month debt have plunged from about 1.80% in June. "I have never seen this before," said Michael Franzese, head of government bond trading at Standard Chartered. "It's all about capital preservation for the turn of the year, not capital appreciation."

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/investors-buy-32-billion-treasury/story.aspx?guid={09C98AE8-D50C-4A8D-90D4-B648C42B3555}&dist=msr_2

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Holy shit....

[David Zephyr]

1. Brave new world.

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Last safe place to hide your money? US T-BIlls are the "mattress" we used to read about during the

last Great Depression?

[MilesColtrane]

3. Some folks are betting that hyperinflation is just around the corner.

I can understand why.

[FarCenter]

8. The return is > 0% if you expect the dollar to go up against your currency

For example, on 9/9/08 the Dollar bought 0.56390 British pounds. Today it buys 0.6750 British pounds.

So a Brit, holding three month Treasurys at "0%" actually would have made 19% in 3 months or over 80% at an annualized coumpounded rate.

[ramapo]

4. Crazy...next comes negative interest?

I'm waiting for a service charge on my savings, not a flat fee either but a percentage.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. It's already happened. Seriously.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3638232

[acmavm]

6. Who is THAT crazy?

[high density]

7. These must be the same people that are buying Windows XP downgrades from Dell for $150

I guess if you want to keep $32 billion safe for a month, Treasury bills will do it.

[bemildred]

9. LOL. Capitalists forgoing profit on purpose. Who knew? nt

[cloudythescribbler]

10. That makes no sense -- why not just sell something short? Or trade currency itself?

maybe I'm just too stupid to see these profundities.

[madrchsod]

11. japan in the 90`s

the problem became so bad there was a negative interest rate..yes they paid people to borrow money

[bmbmd]

12. Reminds me of the National Change Bank skit on SNL

Volume, man. Volume.

[unkachuck]

13. could our greed meisters....

....be suffering from 'risk adversion'?....how could this be?....is capitalism giving them heartburn?....are private institutions making the greed meisters jittery and crazy with fear?

....then we should charge them for the government service of guaranteeing their assets....I would say it's nearly unanimous, capitalism sucks!