Government Bonds

[joe sod]

Burn the bond holders referred to holders of bank bonds, not Govt bonds

Yes, but they were guaranteed by the government in 2008, after that the government's hands were effectively tied. If they had of burned the bond holders subsequently then the credibility of Irish government to pay its debts would be gone and they wouldn't have been able to get the 20 billion from the bond markets at such low interest rates in 2020 for covid lockdowns

 

[Mayo1969]

China actually holds some very good cards in this 'war'. A HUGE amount of debt and assets in the US are owned by Chinese investors and institutions. Imagine if they decided to call in the loans and sell off the assets.

There is a good explanation of all this on a podcast by David McWilliams (which i cant find the link to now) from before the tariff wars. Its an eye-opener to see how exposed the US economy is to China.

For Trump to take on China is probably a mistake.

The Chinese people are also more likely to weather any hardship than Trump voters, i'd guess.

Thanks for the great recommendation. I listened to that one and a couple of subsequent ones and it's an indication of how topsy turvey and out of control the world economy has become under Trump's disasterous and illiterate (anti)economics and McWilliams was insightfully calling all this back in January well before "Liberation Tuesday"