fund mgr

Treasury Bonds: The Short of the Century

The discussion is missing the key point of this "short of the century". The Fed can control the fed fund rate, but it cannot control the yield of the US treasury, which is determined by the market. The US treasury rate is further driven by the short-term rate which is FF and the inflation expectation of the market. Thus even if Fed does not raise FF - which translates to higher forecast for future inflation i.e. the residual effect of expansive monetary policy, the long rate will go higher. On the other hand if Fed raise FF rate then long rate will also go higher as well, however the spread between short and long rate might flatten. So which point is not made clear? The long rate for the UST has no way to go but ... where? Safe for a financial crisis again emerging in the near future, which might happen too, you can never say never with this financial climate, however the Fed is determined to save the financial institutions (and the system) so any flight to quality will be relatively short lived. Full disclosure - I am short the UST.