Good morning. The US stock market had a bit of a Fed hangover yesterday. Makes sense: the message gets more hawkish the more you think about it. Email us: robert.armstrong@ft.com and ethan.wu@ft.com.
Treasuries don’t have to be a crisis to be a problem
High volatility and the worst liquidity conditions since 2008 have everyone paying attention to the creaking Treasury market. The risk of a market freeze-up is getting front-page coverage, thanks in no small part to public warnings from US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen. From the SEC to Pimco, reform ideas are pouring in from all corners.
The reason is that Treasuries touch, directly or indirectly, everything else in the world financial system, whether as a pricing benchmark, the default form of collateral, or something else. The market has an “existential quality” that forces policymakers to protect it “at all costs”, says Vanderbilt University’s Yesha Yadav.