[Thane_Banquo]

Why is it not good? They have no power to influence buy owning federal bonds. Bonds are debt, not stock. When you own stock, you can tell the company whose stock you own what to do. When you own bonds, you have no such rights whatsoever. A bondholder cannot tell the US government what to do just because he owns a government bond.

[MarshalNey]

A bondholder cannot tell the US government what to do just because he owns a government bond.


The bondholder can tell the debtor to pay, and right now the government is not in a position to do that.

[Principled]

Why is it not good?

Some folks believe that, in a fit of anger, China would dump all its bonds into the secondary market... pummeling the value of our bonds instantly.

We, or someone else, would have to buy them up promptly.

[Arleigh]

Why is it not good? They have no power to influence buy owning federal bonds.

Actually, dumping large amounts of US government debt has been suggested by some Chinese military strategists as one "asymetrical warfare" tactic to use in the coming Sino-American War. Doing so could drive up US interest rates dramatically. Leveraged financial speculators (i.e. most major banks) who sell Treasuries short and invest the proceeds in higher yielding securities would be crushed, toppling our whole financial system.