That’s not corrupt though. Everyone in the market is aware of that and the likelihood rate cuts. Trump does so much corrupt shit, but I don’t really see this as a problem. With the amount of wealth he’s amassed just this year, it would be weirder if he didn’t buy a slug of bonds.
I don’t think you read the article.
I did, and they’re reaching. Fundamentally, I agree it is bad that Trump is actively trading. Appearance of impropriety, etc. However, bonds are different from stocks in that the materiality threshold for a bond investor is higher.
As in, bond investors who try to can the Fed chair, stack the Fed board, and hire the CEO of the worlds biggest bond trading firm as Commerce Secretary? Oh.
But that all affects bonds the same way. He could buy a bond ETF like BND and would enjoy the same “advantage” as with the individual bonds. His capacity to move the price of individual securities (as opposed to the bond market generally) is very limited.
All kinds of policy choices and events can have a material impact on a stock because they change the company’s prospects and thus its value. For bond investors, the only things that really matter are events that change the company’s ability to make timely principal and interest payments—a higher bar