Europe Can Wield Their $8 Trillion ‘Sell America’ Weapon as Trump Reignites a Trade War Over His Greenland Conquest Ambitions: ‘European countries own $8 trillion of US bonds and equities, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined’
Source: T_Shurt
32 Comments
There are many levers to pull.
Personally I’m boycotting the USA till it becomes better.
Total economic collapse is what Trump is already creating. Before Trump is done, USA will be begging to pledge allegiance to King Charles.
From the article:
As the European Union weighs options to retaliate against Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, its most potent weapon may be in financial markets.
France is already urging the EU to deploy its “anti-coercion instrument,” which can target foreign direct investment and finance as well as trade.
The U.S. has a key vulnerability the EU can exploit, according to George Saravelos, head of FX research at Deutsche Bank. “Europe owns Greenland, it also owns a lot of treasuries,” he said.
Holding these bonds helps balance America’s massive external deficits, and Europe is the world’s biggest lender to the U.S.
“European countries own $8 trillion of U.S. bonds and equities, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined,” Saravelos pointed out. “In an environment where the geoeconomic stability of the western alliance is being disrupted existentially, it’s not clear why Europeans would be as willing to play this part.”
Been saying this for a while now, [most recently a couple of days back.](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1qejoc2/comment/nzz408p/)
The UK is the third largest holder of US debt. There are several other NATO member states that also add a massive amount to the pile.
It’s harsh on the American people, but it needs to happen.
Since Trump is wielding this tariff power on his own, doesn’t it make sense for the pushback to be on his personal European golf courses, hotels, and assets?
I would advise all to dump all their US holdings while they still hold some value. The USA is a failed economy, it is dead it just does not know it yet.
Economic analysis: A sudden, massive sell-off of $4 trillion in US securities would likely trigger an immediate financial crisis including a spike in interest rates, collapse of the dollar’s value, stock market decline, drop in pension funds and 401Ks, choke off consumer spending, and if the US Treasury wasn’t able to find enough buyers federal spending would necessarily stop. In short, a sharp, uncontrolled global economic downturn.
They should dump 10% of it immediately.
Then do so again to match any new tariffs.
Don’t forget Canada has 328 Billion in bonds to sell too
I could totally see EU governments ***initially*** being reluctant to demand repayment for their US bonds, since it would devalue the USD, resulting in an economic loss for that government.
But then someone would point out that the more EU countries demand repayment, the more the USD would be devalued, which means countries demanding repayment sooner would take less of a loss than countries which demand repayment later (assuming they re-invested the repayment immediately).
At that point, EU political leaders (as well as leaders of non-EU countries) would see it as their responsibility to demand repayment of their bonds as soon as possible, to minimize that loss. It would be kind of like a [bank run.](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run)
10% tariff => 10% repayment of $8 trillion.
Do it. I live here and I’m telling you, do it. Punish this place. There’s a huge number of people in this country that are completely A-OK with being Nazis, with fascism, with racism and everything else that’s going on.
Crush this country through whatever means you have available, and be prepared to militarily oppose attempts by China and Russia and Iran and Saudi Arabia who will immediately try to fill the void. But I think the result of leaving this place as it stands now is another world war. This government and these people running it right now need a reckoning, and their corporate masters need to be shown that lootonomics has as its price the killing of the golden goose.
And closing army bases. No intelligence sharing. That would really be the end of relations however.
I’m pretty sure you have to find someone else to buy the bonds you are selling. Selling them for less doesn’t exactly hurt the US and just hurts people selling them for less. Not buying more will hurt the US though.
The problem is that that is a magic trick that can only be performed once, and that would hurt Europe as well. Trump could be around for three more years, so there is a point to keep the powder dry.
I would imagine that the EU has already spent a lot of this year establishing supply lines that moved away from US dependency. They’ll continue to move in this direction now, as well.
What’s really going to be interesting is when Trump moves his sights towards Mexico – a country that produces a huge portion of the food that the US consumes, and thus has way more leverage than Trump is capable of understanding.
For Americans: we can sell America too. Transition your holdings into various international funds. Send a message to the fascists that we’re not going to prop up their markets while they destroy this country.
Time for Europe to boycott America.
Some poor fucker has the job of trying to explain things like this to Trump. It’s the most thankless and pointless task in existence but I guess it pays well.
Its actually quite impressive that the tangerine turd has managed to unite almost everyone against USA…
to see the danish representatives from the far-left to the far-right in the european parlement actually agree on ANYTHING, let alone that enouh is enough and USA must face dire concequences!
guess there is a first time for everything…
(At this point, demographically, I think there might actually be more flat-earth’ers than pro-america people in scandinavia…)
Getting graphene OS on my phone and degoogling. We need to stop using their products.
If the EU turns off the M7 in the EU, it will quickly get dark in the USA. And like China also EU can develop there own services.
Trump wants the dollar to crash. That’s not a threat to him.
Do it. Crush Cheeto mussolini where it matters.
Be first. Be smart. Cheat.
— Margin Call
You all need to hope the EU figures out the actual long play here.
Good, I’m an American who is sick of out stupid bullshit.
every day, another american learns they are propped up by the rest of the world rather than the other way around
Every time trump even threatens a tariff on the EU, they should just dump like $250B. Every time he opens his disgusting gob.
Trump is a fucking nonce – not a single iota of economics knowledge or fucking couth in his gelatinous orange shell of self obsession and ego.
Please do it y’all may be saving countless American lives.
The only thing that will cause our sold out Legislators to actually turn on the Orange Menace is their pocketbooks. THAT would get them off their asses. They could have him gone in a damn minute if they felt like it, him and all his enablers.
Plus it’s smart business because is the USD really a good investment any more? From where we’re sitting in regular American voter world, the economy is BROKEN.
This is what happens when an idiot leverages his imaginary strength against the world table. It’s not a game of cards that anyone wins.
This a tool with more power and potential for misery than nukes, and I mean that wholly unironically. Let’s not tank the global economy please.