The short term notes the Treasury issues, called bills, dipped into the
negative rates on Tuesday. That means that the Treasury was selling
pieces of paper that when held for one month paid exactly zero
interest. These bills usually sell for $1,000 apiece and on Tuesday
they became negative when investors were paying $1,010 to buy
them.....meaning investors were paying $10 to get a zero interest
$1,000 safe investment.
Investors see the financial world as so dangerous and risky that they are paying the U.S. Treasury to take their money for a month and keep it safe. There was four times as much money bidding on the bills as there were bills on the market.
I knew this happened in the 1930s with savings accounts in Swiss banks where savers were PAYING up to 4% to keep their money in the Swiss banks.
It is happening here and now. We lived to see it.