Spotted by Alea, the below is from the minutes of the latest released report of the (US) Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee:
…members discussed the potential to issue other securities if needed including a reintroduction of a 4-year note, a 20-year bond, and/or longer-dated debt…
Which as Alea notes, would be a fifty year bond.
A notion which certainly has its attractive side in surmounting some of the problems the TBAC highlighted they will face with the forthcoming super-glut of Treasury issuance. Among those problems:
… risk appetite by the market, balance sheet constraints, and competition by other less liquid yet guaranteed or “effectively guaranteed” products…
A super-long fifty-year bond – or for that matter a 4-year or a 20-year bond – would hopefully offer something a little new and might expand the potential base of willing customers. Possibly. New maturities would though, also raise a lot of questions. And anyway, the committee has quashed the idea – for now…
[Members stated] it was premature to proceed with any of those options [i.e. longer dated debt] at this time since nominal sizes could be increased and the additions to the calendar would assist Treasury in achieving its financing.
One unrelated snippet of note:
One member asked if Treasury was publicizing “Treasury Direct”, the online system that allows institutional and retail investors to purchase securities directly from Treasury at the auction. Ramanathan noted that Treasury explicitly lowered the minimum denomination on marketable Treasuries to $100 from $1000 to broaden the scope of potential investors
Roll on the retail buyers!