> It's symbolism.

It's not. This is where the financial rubber meets the road, actions have consequences, and the rest of the world is looking at the US as increasingly unlikely to pay above inflation on its debts.

The people managing the pension funds (if they are acting in good faith) really want to generate yield, and really want to preserve capital for the Danish people. They don't want to symbolically do those things, they want to actually do them. If treasuries were still part of what they believe to be the best strategy, they would still be holding them.

It's not pure symbolism. The most effective way to reduce the global threat the US is appearing to pose more as of late, is to hit the dollar. The US economy is in a very precarious state, tensions along political ideology lines are high, and it would not take much more than a worsening of economic conditions plus a catalyst event to kick off armed unrest within the country. A new civil war that drives the US to fragment into several independent regions over the course of the next ~five years would kind of be the best scenario from a global perspective.

> It's all a sliding slope until it reaches a breaking point and falls off like a cliff.

"How did you go bankrupt?"

"Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/102579-how-did-you-go-bankr...

In a "might makes right" world, Europe clearly needs more might, and then it makes sense to improve relations with China; not a lot of options.

Far more important, I'd say, are the European countries having already got together to discuss joint sanctions/tariffs against the USA (their nominal NATO partner) if Trump moves to seize Greenland.

Macron has also said that he wants no part of Trump's (billion dollar entrance fee) "peace board" that he's going to be pushing at Davos.

A divorce from the USA would certainly hurt Europe, but it will also hurt the USA and it's ability to defend itself if it loses access to European intelligence and ability to have forward located military bases and refueling locations.

The Republican's are really shooting themselves, and the US, in the foot here by not standing up to Trump and therefore indicating that all this craziness is Trump rather than an enduring US policy that they support. Even if they flip flop when Trump is out of office, the rest of the world is never going to trust the US again.

I believe this is actually the center of the matter. Trump surely does not represents all the Americans, but I believe he is currently acting in a so aggressive way because America has a problem, that is: for years governments of other countries are selling more and more US bonds (because the United States look progressively less able to pay back), and given the US huge debt, this would mean an incredible problem for a country that for decades spent ways more than it was possible or wise (and, this spending also helped to fuel the IT strong position the country achieved). So, now, in order to have compelling arguments to ask for certain conditions, Trump is acting in this way, since in order to have something that others don't want to give to America, America needs to be a problem the other countries. This is a way to amplify your position in the world, that is otherwise not as strong as in the past. We used to watch Russia doing something like that, and could not expect to see this from USA. But things evolve...

If this is a symbolism, then why 30YR Treasuries are YTH despite FED rate cuts throughout the year?

The article has a quote from the investment director saying it is not symbolism. "The decision is rooted in the poor U.S. government finances, which make us think that we need to make an effort to find an alternative way of conducting our liquidity and risk management"

> It's all a sliding slope until it reaches a breaking point and falls off like a cliff.

Would it be a gradual decline or a step change after some point?

It's only symbolism if you believe that there's a 0% chance of US/Denmark hostilities. Otherwise - d'oh, yes, you don't want to risk being stuck holding IOU's from your enemy, which he is rather likely to dishonor.

It’s crazy to see how Trump has made the U.S. look like a worse partner than China, or at least just as bad.

It's like Trump and his followers are not aware how fragile this entire system is, and if they are aware, they don't seem to be aware of the risks, and that the most likely outcome is that the world is in a less good condition than before. A big child that got the wish granted to play president.

The problem is that the EU and China are both looking for export markets to fund their economic growth, unless EU blows up it's welfare system and prints money like the US, the two are competitors.

But doing that would undermine Euro's credibility, as the EU is a loose union of countries with their distinct interests and politics, also member countries would compete on outspending each other as the Euro would have been essentially free money, a Euro debt crisis on turbocharge.

So, the EU can never print like the US. The EU and China will be rivals.

With Trump pressuring the independence of the central bank, this doesn't seem symbolism at all.

It might very well be that the USA will face a period of high inflation soon if we continue down this path of high government spending and no independent central bank to put a break on it.

And I can't even understand why this obsession of lowering interest rates in the USA. The economy is doing great, there's no shortage of investment money going around. There's really no reason to lower in the interest rates before we tackle the leftover inflation that still comes from the COVID measures.

It's Trump's personal insecurities playing again and not allowing anyone to tell him "no". What a child.

"How did you go bankrupt? Two ways: gradually and then suddenly."

--Ernest Hemingway

It's symbolism unless planting a stooge to lower interest rates below any economic justification in April causes a significant slide on the dollar's value. In which case its a great investment move.

Trump is making China great again

Canada needs cheaper cars than US manufacturers want to provide. US brand cars have all been going higher dollar and further up market in recent years.

Quebec is famous for the "Quebec Special". Cars with manual everything. No AC. Manual windows. Completely stripped down to be as affordable/disposable as possible. Also the roads are absolute shit, they never wash off the salt, there used to be no inspections and title-washing is common practice there.

> It's symbolism. But it's important symbolism. Far more notable, I think, is Macron saying this morning that Europe needs more investment from China. Canada signing a deal with China to allow their cars to be sold in the country.

The better move would be to invest internally. China wants a hegemony, whether they acknowledge it out loud or not. As Europe and Canada start seeking Chinese investment, the Chinese will seek something in return. They're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

I'd also like to think that the American/Western investment in places like China and Russia are part of how we got to where we're at now. It became apparent for Western capital that human rights aren't necessarily compatible with economic growth and can even run contrary to it. Eventually that mindset permeates a society, and it has in the US. A large plurality of the population thinks that a billionaire strongman is necessary to remain competitive in the global marketplace. This mindset didn't show up overnight, it was a slow burn.

Some of it was fueled by the demographic transitions of the last fifty years, some by American economic anxiety - which was caused by American/Western investment in China - and the rest of the West has the same problems in those departments that the US has to one extent or another. The European/Canadian welfare state that provided protection from some of the economic anxiety that was seen in the US must get its funding from somewhere, and you get it from taxing economic expansion. Economic expansion relies on at least some population growth. Right now, you don't see native population growth in most Western countries. They have to have people immigrate in to stay competitive. In pretty much all of these countries, you've seen at least some friction between the "native" population and immigrants. You'll see more of that in the future, and that's how the Canadian/European Trump will show up. Doubly so in Europe, because their nation-states are partially defined in terms of ethnicity.

The EU and Canada is upset because of Trumps use of force to remove a dictator and acquire land via direct negotiations with Greenland natives. Their response? Develop a deeper relationship with a communist country and dictator who has literal concentration camps, slave-like working conditions for a large segment of its workers, complete disregard for the environment by polluting its oceans and swaths of government-sponsored fishing boats that empty the oceans of its fish via a complete disregard for abiding by commercial fishing regulations; subsidizes one of the most ruthless and oppressive regimes known to man -- North Korea, and uses the North Koreans to harvest organs for use in China.

I get it: Trump is a degenerate person, not a role model, and extremely brash, but people's hate for him has completely blinded them of basic reasoning. No, Trump is not Hitler or anything remotely close.

As Americans, we need to stop calling every political opponent that we disagree with Hitler.

It is symbolism. Canada thinks partnering up with a government that actually murders it's minorities and has some of the worst human rights violations in recent history is a good thing. How can you possibly support this and somehow think the US is worse?

If Taiwan thinks they will get support from these countries that are now heavily invested in China, they need to think again.

Will there be protests? or are they reserved for the evil US.

“American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, a stable financial system... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ..."

This is all political and a result of personal views against Trump. Canada has its own issues. They allowed foreign investors to swoop in and purchase up all of the housing, which raised the prices. Combined with overbearing regulations, means most young people will never get a house.

It's all theater because the people in charge don't have the will to actually make the uncomfortable choices to improve the Canadian economy. Instead? they are using the US as an excuse.

That sounds like a rhetoric for better negotiating power against Trump. Chinese are our adversaries (EDIT: enemies, they actually bankroll Russian invasion and supply weapons) and I hope president of France understands that.