美国国家公共电台 NPR--Investors prefer bonds: How sleepy government bonds became the hot investment of 2022

Investors¹ prefer bonds: How sleepy government bonds became the hot investment of 2022

Transcript²

Move over, crypto. The hot investment of 2022 is way sleepier but a lot more stable. It's U.S. government bonds.

A few weeks ago, so many people scrambled³ to get in on the asset that they crashed the Treasury⁴'s website.

"It's been a wild couple of months here," said David Enna, founder⁵ of Tipswatch.com, a site that tracks government bonds. "This is stuff that never gets attention paid to it normally, but they've become very hot."

The 28 cents that could break the budget

Government bonds are loans you make to the government: You buy a bond for four weeks, six months, 10 years, etc., and at the end of that time, Uncle Sam pays you back with a little interest.

And when I say "little," I really mean "little." "People were making a couple of cents a year interest," said Enna.

Fellow reporter Andrea Hsu and I decided⁶ to see what was going on for ourselves, so we went halfsies (with our own money) on a $100 government bond that matured after four weeks.

In return for lending the government $100 for four weeks, we earned 28 cents. This, admittedly, sounds puny⁷, but it isn't.

If we'd bought this same bond at the beginning of the year, we would have earned a small fraction of a penny. Now we're getting more than 70 times that.

That's great for us, but bad news for the U.S. government, which has $24 trillion worth of bonds it has to pay back, some of it at these higher interest rates.

In fact, these bond payments got so big in 2022, people are worried they could sink the U.S. into crippling debt or force drastic spending cuts.

And the money the U.S. gets from selling bonds (billions of dollars' worth every week) is a crucial source of funding.

The U.S. needs the money from bonds to keep the lights on, and if it's suddenly having to pay a ton of money to get that money, it is very bad news.

How did this happen?

Along came the Fed

During the early days of COVID, one of the ways the Federal Reserve came to the aid of the U.S. economy was through buying government bonds. The Fed bought these bonds as a way to keep money flowing through the economy (like one part of the government lending money to another part).

But when inflation started looking like a serious problem, Jerome Powell had the Federal Reserve largely stop buying bonds. That sent a little shock wave through the U.S. bond market and forced the Treasury to offer much larger payouts.

Spending the spoils

Andrea and I wanted to do what we could do to help the U.S. economy with our haul of 28 cents. We knew spending it would get it back into the economy faster than anything else.

Luckily, NPR's New York offices are right near Times Square, where there are infinite ways to spend money (as long as you "heart" New York).

Still, finding something for a quarter was not easy: The inflation that helped us get our sweet 28-cent payout has also pushed the price of nearly everything way up.

After visiting several stores, we finally found a souvenir shop offering postcards for a quarter. With sales tax, it came out to just under 28 cents.

There were several options, but we chose one with the Statue of Liberty on it. After all, patriotic⁸ capitalism⁹ is what government bonds are all about.

And if we buy another couple of bonds, we may eventually have enough money to mail it.

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 puny   

adj.微不足道的，弱小的

参考例句：

• The resources at the central banks' disposal are simply too puny.中央银行掌握的资金实在太少了。
• Antonio was a puny lad,and not strong enough to work.安东尼奥是个瘦小的小家伙，身体还不壮，还不能干活。

8 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

9 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。