Monday, December 14, 2009

A steeper path to follow

Sovereign debt yield curves are steepening.

On Thursday, US 30-year yields hit four-month highs after a government long-dated auction received poor demand and revived worries over the federal budget deficit.

With reason. Outstanding Treasury debt currently looks like this:

US Treasury outstanding debt - Bloomberg

In fact, according to Bloomberg, the Treasury yield curve has now hit its steepest since at least 1980. Here at least is how today’s curves compare to those in 2007.

As they stand today:
Yield curves - Bloomberg

And how they stood two years ago:

Yield curves 2007 - Bloomberg

And for those interested to see how US liabilities have been dispersed, here’s the current distribution of US public debt according to TreasuryDirect:

US debt distribution - Treasury direct

No comments:

Lunch is for wimps

Lunch is for wimps
It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.