Treasuries set for worst year since 1978 as U.S. steps up sales

Finance & Commerce ^ | 12/30/09 | Bloomberg News

[Nachum]

Treasuries headed for the worst year in at least three decades as the U.S. stepped up debt sales to help spur growth in an economy recovering from the biggest slump since the Great Depression.

The existing seven-year note was little changed after a $32 billion of sale of the debt drew a yield of 3.345 percent, compared with an average forecast of 3.372 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of four of the Federal Reserve’s 18 primary dealers. U.S. government securities have fallen 3.6 percent this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes, the worst performance since 1978.

[Nachum]

For some reason the song "Highway to Hell" comes to mind...

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[Blood of Tyrants]

Treasury sales are crap because they are offering crappy interest rates.

[Col Frank Slade]

WELCOME BACK CARTER

[Psycho_Bunny]

Sure would be great if the government stopped “fixing” the economy.

[qam1]

This article can’t be right,

Over the last several days I’ve been reading in various MSM outlets that treasuries are recieveing a “positive reception”

You really don’t expect me to believe they are lying do you?

[proxy_user]

It’s an auction. The rates are set by those making offers to buy the bonds.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Then is worse than I thought. People don’t want them at any rate.

[Armaggedon]

1978 was the time of Jimmy Carter. By 1979 we had 20% interest rates and massive inflation. What Obama is doing to us now is at least ten times as bad. Obama the blind, leading the blind, is taking America on the road to hell.

We better get on the road leading up. The spiritual highway. The Obama train is cruising for a crash.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

0bama is Carter on steroids! Having survived The Carter Years myself as a young woman starting out on her own, my advice is that we all had better buckle in for one helluva bumpy ride DOWN.

(And PRAY like you’ve never prayed before!!)

[ExTexasRedhead]

The Highway to Hell goes past Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Soros, and the rest of the traitors in the US Congress.

[BohDaThone]

The article is completely opaque as to "worst" in what sense? The best I can get from a close reading is that the GAP between the interest rates for sales of 10 year and 2 year debt is the widest ever, but neither is very high by the standards of the Carter era. At most, it means that short-term rates are still extremely low, and 10-year rates are close to the average of the last 10-20 years.

But the writer sure doesn't help you find out, and he could mean something completely diffferent that he isn't sharing with us!