{"id":23860,"date":"2026-01-21T01:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=23860"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:34:08","slug":"bessent-says-europe-dumping-us-debt-over-greenland-would-defy-logic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/bessent-says-europe-dumping-us-debt-over-greenland-would-defy-logic\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessent says Europe dumping US debt over Greenland would ‘defy logic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) \u2013\u00a0<\/em>US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday rejected the idea that European governments could aggressively sell American debt to counter Washington’s threats over Greenland, saying such a move would “defy logic”.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said at the weekend that, from February 1, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden would be subject to a 10-percent tariff on all goods sent to the United States until Denmark agrees to cede Greenland.<\/em><\/p>\n

The announcement has drawn angry charges from the US allies who are pondering countermeasures.<\/em><\/p>\n

These could include retaliatory tariffs but also possibly a concerted strategy to offload US Treasury bonds.<\/em><\/p>\n

About a third of traded American government bonds, estimated at a total of some $30 trillion, is held by foreigners, led by Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other major holders of US sovereign bonds include the UK, Belgium, Canada and France.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aggressive selling of bonds would cause long-term interest rates to spike, make the re-financing of the US debt hugely more expensive for Trump’s administration and weigh heavily on corporate financing and the economy as a whole.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Europeans hold roughly $10 trillion in US assets: around $6 trillion in US equities and roughly $4 trillion in Treasuries and other bonds,” observed Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. “Selling those assets would pull the rug from under US markets.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But asked by reporters at the Davos World Economic Forum whether the US was preparing for such a scenario, Bessent said that it “defies any logic”.<\/em><\/p>\n

Calling the US Treasury market “the best-performing market in the world” and the “most liquid” debt market, he said he expected Europeans to hold on to their exposure, not offload it.<\/em><\/p>\n

“There’s a completely false narrative there,” he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think everyone needs to take a deep breath. Do not listen to the media who are hysterical.”<\/em><\/p>\n

European Union leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss their response to the Greenland crisis, and Trump said he had agreed to a meeting with “various parties” on the standoff while he is in Davos this week.<\/em><\/p>\n

There were signs, meanwhile, in global markets that a “Sell America” movement was underway, said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, a trading firm.<\/em><\/p>\n

US markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday, but “Treasury yields are rising sharply” in anticipation of Tuesday’s reopening, she said.<\/em><\/p>\n

The dollar fell and “Japan leads a global bond sell-off”, the analyst observed, adding that American equities were also marked lower ahead of Wall Street’s session Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n

Concerns have mounted “over the Trump administration’s confrontational stance toward global counterparts, which could potentially dampen appetite for US assets”, with longer-term bonds bearing “the brunt of the decline”, said Patrick Munnelly, a money manager at the Tickmill group.<\/em><\/p>\n

Analysts said global investors were intently focused on Davos, where Trump is expected Wednesday, for fresh insights into the US-Europe standoff.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) \u2013\u00a0US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday rejected the idea that European governments could aggressively sell American debt to counter Washington’s threats over Greenland, saying such a move would “defy logic”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":23861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23862,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions\/23862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}