Long Bond Yields at All Time Lows

Below is monthly chart of the yield on a ten year Treasury note over the past 20 years. Earlier this month 10 yr yields dropped below 2% for the first time ever.

After the Fed announced Operation Twist this past wk, yields broke lower yet again. They now reside at about 1.8%.

The Fed is trying to buoy economic activity thru borrowing--particularly w.r.t. housing. But anyone with a pulse recognizes that interest rates, which have been at generational lows for months, do not constitute a binding constraint on economic activity here. Economies around the world are already choking on debt and have little appetite for more. The Fed is thus pushing on a string.

Two groups are especially hurt by Fed policy here. Retired people and other savers are having trouble making ends meet as it is becoming impossible to make ends meet by making 1-2% off modest principal. Savings are being gutted by Fed policy. Moreover, low returns on savings are nudging more people into risky assets such as dividend-paying stocks.

Keep in mind that, over time, savings are the driver of higher standard of living as resources set aside are invested in productivity-enhancing technologies.

Pension funds are also significantly impacted by long bond rates. Pensions funds are built on bond portfolios, and these portfolios are returning less and less. Lower bond yields increase pension fund assumptions about future liabilities, thereby creating funding gaps. To close these gaps, pension fund managers can take more risk increasing their allocation towards stocks, or, in the case of corporate pension funds, have the corporate parents write checks out of retained earnings to fund the shortfall. Those checks in turn reduce earnings...

By discouraging saving and encouraging risk taking, current Fed policy serves as a major drag on standard of living.

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