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malfist a day ago

Why not? Percentage is the same for dollars as it is for yen or franks or pesos

05hundred a day ago | parent | next [-]

Well for one thing, different currencies have different rates of inflation. If one currency has 10% inflation and another has 1%, the second countries bonds at 5% will have a higher real return than the first, even if the risk of defaulting were the same, so the first country will have to offer a much higher coupon to find any buyers.

Also governments can influence demand, e.g. by mandating banks or pension funds buy their bonds, thereby pushing yields down, without changing the risk of default.

chollida1 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Why not? Percentage is the same for dollars as it is for yen or franks or pesos

That's a fair question if you aren't int he industry. Inflation would be the best example of why you can't do that.

Would you rather have a Zimbabwe bond that pays 10%(when they had 10,000% inflation a year) or a US bond that pays 5%

rdm_blackhole a day ago | parent | prev [-]

The eurozone countries' bond rates are distorted by the Euro.