U.S. Bond Yields Up as Worries Spread About Economy

Good morning to my Cheddar editor Matt Gross who suggested I include a nice uplifting arts story from the front page of the paper each morning to cheer readers up. So here’s a story about the Naval academy banning Maya Angelou but keeping Mein Kampf.

Great ideas sometimes take a day or two to germinate so again: Thanks, Matt! 🤗

The front page lead this morning is this story by Alexandra Stevenson about how bond markets are spooked by the China trade war. I’m In the financial district as I type this and I took a lovely image of a rainy day on Wall Street as I emerged from the subway station:

Here’s the front page:

So. Bond markets. As a journalist at Money Marketing in 2003 it was my job to cover the investment market. I did the job for more than a year and mostly learned to drink heavily. One thing I never got interested in was bond markets, which is a shame because now they’re f___ed, it would be helpful if I could explain why.

Basically bonds are when governments lend people money. U.S. bond yields are doing something they shouldn’t be because global investors trust America less than they used to for obvious reasons. That’s a spooky story because it means investors tend to think risk is up in what used to be a “safe haven.”

As I say, bonds are boring. Now the bond market is f___ed, and that’s a bad thing.

I’m gonna play squash now. Sorry this is so brief but it’s a Saturday and bonds are boring.

Matt Davis phoned it in today.