[the-golden-one]

This is the key point. It’s uncertainty which spooks the markets and investor confidence.

[hedora]

Are there any decent alternatives? At what point does transparent securities fraud generally lead to capital flight?

[HarHarVeryFunny]

There's tons of global markets to invest in, not just US, and of course other US investment instruments other than stocks if you feel those are more investable in current climate.

There has already been capital flight. Trump's (temporary?) U-turn on tariffs was due to a massive sell-off in US Treasuries, largely by the Japanese, which caused yields to jump.

[dummydummy1234]

Was that a actual selloff, or an unwinding of the basis trade leading to a selloff?

[HarHarVeryFunny]

I don't know - I'd initially seen it discussed without mention of that, but now I see there's talk of two different basis trades ...

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250412232/how...

The US would certainly be in trouble if the perception of instability reduces the appetite for US debt, or if holders choose to weaponize it.

[whatshisface]

Most of the world has an unstable government that does stuff like this every decade or two at least. If the US is going to be just as bad, everywhere is an alternative, although none of them will be as good as the US was.

[rsynnott]

... I mean this is the sort of thing that _developing world_ countries do, sure, but it's not at all the norm for a developed economy.

[whatshisface]

I would say that most of the world falls into that category.