Speaking of Absurdity ... The Unstoppable Surge in Negative Yields Reaches $17 Trillion

hank

“Thirty percent of all investment-grade securities now bear sub-zero yields, meaning that investors who acquire the debt and hold it to maturity are guaranteed to make a loss. Yet buyers are still piling in ...” https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/negative-yield-bonds/

Bernie Madoff would love this (if he weren’t serving time).

(A) Individual #1 buys a negative yielding bond. The sovereign or corporation issuing this bond guarantees it to be worth less (in nominal value) at maturity than he pays for it.

(B) #1 pockets modest profit after rates fall further. Sells bond to Individual #2.

(C) #2 pockets modest profit after rates fall further. Sells bond to Individual #3.

(D) #3 pockets modest profit after rates fall further. Sells bond to Individual #4.

(E thru Z) Repeat above process over and over into perpetuity. Everybody makes money.

What could possibly go wrong?

Derf

Are ads now allowed ?
Derf
P.S. this is not the first time that it has happened.

hank

@Derf, Are you referring to the accompanying ads on Bloomberg’s site? I wasn’t aware there’s a prohibition. A lot of good articles wouldn’t get linked IMHO if that’s the rule.

Derf

@hank Yes I was .FWIW : IT seems to me that advertisements weren't allowed. Maybe with the link involved D.S. & company let it fly. Maybe ads should be allowed & help fund the site.

Times do change, Derf

Old_Joe

@Derf- You need to differentiate between a post that links to a site which is primarily an ad (typically for some financial product), and sites which have useful and pertinent information (which may or may not be accompanied by ads). As hank mentions, that situation is understood to be unavoidable, and thus acceptable.

The use of an ad blocker with your browser will eliminate the great majority of such advertising content- for instance, I see no ads at all on the site under discussion.

Derf

@old_Joe; You've reached your free article limit
Subscribe for unlimited access to Bloomberg.comAlready a subscriber or Bloomberg Anywhere client? Part of ad.

That's what shows on my PC. Back door advertising. As I said, this isn't the first by a long shot !!

I think David & Co. need to take a look at financing site through a few ads.

Yes I do have an ad blocker , but it didn't work on this link.

Yes I've probably linked a few ads myself.

Have a good weekend, Derf
P.S O_J do you subscribe to Bloomberg?

Old_Joe

@Derf- Hi there. No sir, I don't- in the page which comes up from this link it says "sign In" and "Subscribe" up in the upper right-hand heading area. I do allow their cookies, though, and they have a whole slew of them on this browser. I don't have any idea if that makes a difference or not, though.

I also don't know what their "free article limit" is... possibly I haven't reached that particular threshold- I have no idea.

Have a good one! OJ

hank

Yep - I noticed recently (in the past month) that Bloomberg has started blocking some stories after a “limit” is reached. Don’t like it either. NYT has long done the same thing. There’s both a Bloomberg “App” (which I have installed on my devices) and a Bloomberg website that you can access without their app. I mention this because I’m not certain that the article limit is enforced on both domains. Might be.

I don’t consider Bloomberg, NYT, WP, WSJ or others “pitching” their subscription service to be an objectionable form of “ad”. If you’re going to link stories from top-flight news organizations you’re going to run into the issue of them trying to get you to subscribe. Not the same, IMHO, as an ad from an unrelated newsletter or insurance product or one touting a particular brand of automobile or deodorant. I think @Old_Joe‘s response above is right on the money.

@Derf - I find your objection / counter proposal difficult to comprehend. You appear to begrudge the publishers from whom we draw our news and information trying to get you to subscribe to their publications. But you feel opening up the forum to any form of paid advertising would somehow be preferable? Why is that better than how we operate presently?

Regards