Brian Chappatta, Columnist

The Bond Markets Are Begging for Infrastructure Spending

Government-financed public works projects could end the plague of negative-yielding debt.

August 13, 2019 at 10:00 AM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

The lack of government spending could be doing more harm than good.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Bond buyers worldwide, awash in negative-yielding debt, are crying out for fiscal spending. A seven-minute stretch in the German bund market proves it.

On Aug. 8, just before 9 a.m. in New York, Reuters published a headline that blared “Germany mulls fiscal policy U-turn.” According to an anonymous senior government official, Germany was considering abandoning its long-held balanced budget goal and instead was looking to fund an expensive climate-protection package with new debt.