There Is A Bubble In Sovereign Bonds

The reason people are buying European bonds at negative yields its because its a bubble.

During the real estate bubble investors were buying investment properties that had negative cash flows. Meaning that the rents collected were not enough to cover the cost of owning the property. Now, why were they doing that? Its because they believed that the price of the real estate would go up despite the fact that it had a negative cash flow. They thought that there would be a greater fool who would pay an even higher price and endure an even bigger negative cash flow. So it was the greater fool theory.

That is what is going on now with European sovereign bonds trading at negative rates of interest except the greater fool is the European Central Bank (ECB). People are buying these bonds not because they are dumb enough to hold them to maturity. Nobody going to hold a negative yielding bond to maturity, you are guaranteed to lose money.

People were buying these bonds to sell, they think they will find a greater fool willing to pay an even higher price and get an even more negative yield. That fool is the ECB with their bond buying program and they will buy these bonds regardless of price. This is a gigantic bubble!

Peter Schiff is an American businessman, investment broker and financial commentator. Schiff is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc.