Tuesday Link-Ups: Paying Japan to take your money

The Japanese government got paid to borrow money for a decade for the first time, selling 2.2 trillion yen ($19.5 billion) of the debt at an average yield of minus 0.024 percent on Tuesday:

• Bloomberg – Japan Sells 10-Year Bonds at Negative Yield For the First Time

I know this sounds crazy – paying for the right to loan money to Japan for 10 years:

Shorting Japanese Bonds has been a Widowmaker trade for over 20 years – but you have to ask how much lower into negative territory can they go before something blows up.

Here is a nice primer on negative rates:

• The Wall Street Journal – Everything You Need to Know About Negative Rates

So who loses?  Retirees, Savers, and Banks:

• Mauldin Economics – ZIRP & NIRP: Killing Retirement As We Know It

But do negative rates work?  Not so much:

• Business Insider – The ECB’s 2-year experiment with negative rates hasn’t worked