Who’s Afraid of Standard & Poor’s?

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It’s not like Paul Krugman needs my help in spreading his opinions, but people really ought to be paying a little more attention to the fact that right after S&P’s warning yesterday morning about U.S. debt, interest rates on U.S. debt…..fell. Why? Because demand for U.S. securities rose and their price went up, as the chart below of a typical treasury index fund shows.

In other words, actual bond traders not only ignored S&P, they decided that U.S. debt was even safer than they thought before. And if S&P’s warning didn’t have any impact on trading in actual treasuries, it almost certainly didn’t have any impact on anything else, including the stock market. As Krugman says, “People, this was a non-event.”

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It IS free for you and every reader, viewer, and listener to utilize. But it’s not free for our team to make. So, what’s it worth to you? Let us know by making a donation: Make a one-time donation today to support this work. Or make a monthly sustaining donation to help us plan for the future.

Whatever you choose, know that you’re supporting more independent, investigative journalism in a time when we need it most.

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