American Investors Are Plugging the U.S.’s Record Budget Deficit
- Money funds seen absorbing a third of 2020 Treasuries supply
- Domestic demand key as international appetite has leveled off
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The U.S. Treasury has more than just the Federal Reserve in its corner as it battles to contain the cost of financing the nation’s record budget deficit.
American money-market funds -- a harbor for the assets of retirees and companies -- have bought the brunt of the roughly $2.2 trillion in bills the government has sold to raise cash for economic stimulus amid the pandemic. The Fed has bought almost none, instead hoovering up hundreds of billions of dollars of notes and bonds.