To be clear, if you bought $100 million in US Treasuries

[bucolic_frolic]

you would want one thing: sharply lower interest rates because the price of your bonds would go up.

You lower interest rates by lobbying the Fed, and it's unusual for that strategy to motivate the Fed, OR you want a faltering economy so the Fed will lower interest rates as a matter of policy.

You crash the economy by shrinking demand by deporting workers and by raising prices with tariffs. When recession strikes, the Fed does what it always does. It lowers interest rates.

Just throwing this out there, what did I miss?

[Irish_Dem]

1. Everything single thing Trump does directly benefits himself personally in some way.

[snowybirdie]

2. You're correct

I once worked in the industry and thought that immediately after I read that. Nothing for the nation, all for himself!

[Mosby]

3. It's not that simple.

No one makes that much on tbills, bonds or notes. It's a place to park money, mostly.

According to your example, your bonds have a locked in rate, interest rates don't affect your yield because the bond rates don't change.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Bonds trade in an open market. When rates go down, bond prices go up

because the yield is higher than the new reduced yield. Investors are willing to pay more for the old bond with a higher interest rate than the new bond with a lower one.

[Igel]

6. With T-bills you don't get paid interest.

You get a break on the purchase price. You don't get paid the interest up front, but when you get paid the face value of your bonds there's the interest.

For example ... I know when my car and house insurance are due each year, and I know when my HOA/property taxes are due. Over time I've squirreled enough away to handle each of them well in advance, but don't want to keep the $ sitting in my bank account. Things happen. Accts get hacked, I get stupid. T-bills are a safe place to plop money where it's really hard to be stupid with.

So knowing that I'd need maybe $7k by early July this year, I sank $7000 in 26-week T-bills in early January--saved up for it through the fall and early winter (with my winter bills already covered by money set aside in June. Right on cue, 7/2, $7000 was plopped into my checking account. But on January 2, 2025, what was withdrawn from my account? 6,853.67. What was the interest? 7000 - 6,853.67 = 146.33.

Federal interest rate changes +5 or -4? Sorry, that's irrelevant. On 7/2 I was getting $7000 unless the Treasury defaulted.

They're special. They're not like municipal or corporate bonds.

[Silent Type]

4. That's true. But sometimes, those are circumstances that cause bond defaults or increases risk.