That's right, if you give Germany $6Bn for 2 years, they promise to give it back – AND THERE WAS STRONG DEMAND! How low can we go? Well, the yield in Swiss 2-year paper is actually -0.10%. That's right, you pay them 0.1% to hold your money for two years. Don't like it? Shut up – you're lucky they don't take it all!
Of course the markets are crashing this week – the G8 has bonds to sell! If the markets are flying you're not likely to be so anxious to give your government free money to hold for a couple of years, are you? So this is a great week to take the markets down and the US sold $35Bn worth of 2-year notes at Depression-level lows (1.78%) yesterday and today we sell $35Bn worth of 5-year notes and Thursday we sell $29Bn worth of 7-year notes and THEN we have most of what we need to borrow to take us through the end of May.
To do that, YOU (the not rich enough to have a lot of money in bonds) must be made to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune – to be alarmed by Global seas of troubles, to worry, perchance to panic – and in your panic, perchance to hand your money over at zero percent interest rates where you money will be or not be returned – depending on whether the EU or the rest of the Global economy survives 24 more months.