WSJ: 100-Year Bonds Article Includes a Jim Smith Quote

L: It's always a good thing when Jim gets quoted in national media. Here's an article from The Wall Street Journal that includes a comment from Jim. In case you don't have a WSJ subscription--tsk, tsk--the article talks about the possibility of the US Treasury Department issuing 40-, 50- or 100-year bonds. Jim adds to the conversation with, "Endowments, pension funds and life insurers will love these options."

J: With our pervasive short-term focus, most people do not realize that there are significant groups of investors with very long-term horizons. The longest is endowment funds, many of which would happily buy 1,000-year maturity government bonds if they existed. Next is pension funds, who have very long obligations they have to cover, and finally there are life insurers. All of these investors like predictability, so longer-term investments like these add stable, risk-free income over long periods of time. It would be wonderful if the US Treasury would start issuing bonds that would have special appeal to these investor groups.