Tag Archives: Treasury Debt

The Invisible Run-Off

Today, the Alphaville section of the Financial Times published The invisible run-off, in which I discuss a new source of “quantitative tightening” that almost no one seems to have noticed.  I estimate that $350 billion of private funds will be … Continue reading

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My FT Alphaville Commentary on Managing U.S. Treasury Debt

My commentary Go Long, Mr Mnuchin has just been posted at FT Alphaville of the Financial Times. I address whether the U.S. Treasury debt should be lengthened and whether it should sell 50-year or 100-year bonds.  I think that “ultra-long” bonds are … Continue reading

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Talk at the Chicago Fed

I was pleased to speak on a panel last week at the Sixth Annual Risk Conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Driehaus College of Business, DePaul University. I appeared on a panel on Business Model … Continue reading

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Guest Post at Intuitive Analytics

Peter Orr, the founder of Intuitive Analytics, was kind enough to post my article Is the Treasury Really Going Long? on his blog.  His company provides advanced software and consulting related to debt finance, and his blog provides thoughtful commentary on debt … Continue reading

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Extending the Weighted Average Maturity: Complete Nonsense?

Today, officials of the U.S. Treasury held one of their quarterly meetings with the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (“TBAC”), a group of bond dealers and institutional investors. TBAC had previously been asked whether the Treasury should cause the weighted average … Continue reading

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QWAFAFEW Talk on the National Debt: The Slides

Here are the slides from “The National Debt: Myths and Realities”, a talk I gave to QWAFAFEW in Denver last week. Qwafafew talk 31 jan2013 from Winthrop T. Smith By the way, the presentation draws on two recent articles from this … Continue reading

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The National Debt is Closer than it May Appear

Nate Silver, the star statistician who correctly called last year’s presidential election as well as almost every senate race, wrote an article last week titled What is Driving Growth in Government Spending?.  One factor he considered was the interest on … Continue reading

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Is the Treasury Really Going Long?

In football, a quarterback “goes long” by heaving the ball down the field. If the play succeeds, the team advances many yards and might even score a touchdown. If the play fails, a down is wasted and there might even … Continue reading

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QWAFAFEW Talk on the National Debt

On January 31st, I will give a talk titled “The National Debt: Myths and Reality” to QWAFAFEW in Denver. QWAFAFEW is the Quantitative Work Alliance for Applied Finance, Education and Wisdom. It is an informal organization of quantitatively oriented professionals … Continue reading

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Upcoming Talk on the National Debt

On Wednesday, October 24, I will give a talk to the Finance Club of the University of Colorado at Boulder.  The name of the talk is “A Professional’s Guide to the National Debt”, and it will be held at the … Continue reading

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