@gjohnsit My suggestion is that all of us might forget about a subject we are not as educated or interested in as you. You can hurt feelings easily about memory about a subject we look to you for education.
Snoopydawg is a treasure, as you are.
This OT, an opportunity to say that I am in my 6th week of flu and the aftermath, and I cannot go and do and need to just be still, sit, sleep, and what has kept me from going bonkers is you, snoopydawg, Lookout, and the cherished EB.
I am at the point if I am not dead, I should be happy.

#2 #2 only a few weeks ago

Bloomberg News, citing unnamed people close to the matter, said Chinese officials are considering slowing — or even stopping — its purchases of U.S. government debt. The report suggests that China feels U.S. debt is becoming less attractive when compared to other types of investments. Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies was also cited as a possible reason why China is thinking about reducing its U.S. holdings, according to Bloomberg.

"If the reports turn out to be true and China no longer sees Treasuries as an attractive option, the repercussions could be significant," says Craig Erlam, senior market strategist at OANDA, a currency trading firm with offices in New York. "A significant change in policy could put considerable upside pressure on U.S. yields."

Low interest rates, of course, have been a big driver of the stock market rally the past nine years and has also provided a lift to the economy, as middle-class Americans have benefited from lower borrowing costs.

And two months ago

Two Federal Reserve policymakers urged caution in raising interest rates on Friday, saying that the flattening of the yield curve was a signal that the central bank should proceed slowly.

@gjohnsit and Russia probably contributes to China wanting to roll back some of their purchasing of US debt. His pronouncements are remarkably stupid given how much we owe China how reliant we are upon them for electronics, etc.

#2 #2 only a few weeks ago

Bloomberg News, citing unnamed people close to the matter, said Chinese officials are considering slowing — or even stopping — its purchases of U.S. government debt. The report suggests that China feels U.S. debt is becoming less attractive when compared to other types of investments. Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies was also cited as a possible reason why China is thinking about reducing its U.S. holdings, according to Bloomberg.

"If the reports turn out to be true and China no longer sees Treasuries as an attractive option, the repercussions could be significant," says Craig Erlam, senior market strategist at OANDA, a currency trading firm with offices in New York. "A significant change in policy could put considerable upside pressure on U.S. yields."

Low interest rates, of course, have been a big driver of the stock market rally the past nine years and has also provided a lift to the economy, as middle-class Americans have benefited from lower borrowing costs.

And two months ago

Two Federal Reserve policymakers urged caution in raising interest rates on Friday, saying that the flattening of the yield curve was a signal that the central bank should proceed slowly.

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit
That interest rate derivatives are "about half a quadrillion dollars."
In case anyone needs to use 'quadrillion' in a sentence.
OK, so add in the various other derivatives ... can we get to some part of a quintillion dollars?
Why not just define every grain of sand as being a Dollar?
True, all these dollars are notional, and not as scary as it sounds. But someone having to pay off losses is real as rocks. If that someone goes bust, that starts off a chain of busts. Smells like 2008 … or 1929…or worse is cooking.

#4
from my previous rant

Finally, there is something I've ranted about before - interest rate swaps.
What most people don't realize is that the interest rate swap market is far larger than the credit default swap market that scared so many people in 2008.
The global notional market for interest rate swaps was about $560 Trillion in 2014.

While using notional values dramatically overstates the actual amount of money at risk (unless there are systemic defaults), even a small fraction of that mountain of money dwarfs of the GDP's of the world.
What this means is that if interest rates were to rise, and rise quickly, it would trigger these interest rate swap contracts (i.e. someone would have to pay).

Do Wall Street and the other providers of interest-rate derivatives actually have the capital tucked away somewhere to cover the many trillions of dollars in increased interest payments for the entire nation (and the entire world), year after year, if rates were to rise by 5% or 10% or even more?
In practice, we know that Wall Street wasn't good for their promises on a little more than $1 trillion in subprime mortgage derivatives. There are more than 400 times as many interest-rate derivatives currently outstanding as there were subprime mortgage derivatives in 2008. There's no possible way. It would be an annihilation scenario, short of even greater levels of government interventions.