While Treasuries are said to have no default risk as the Federal
Reserve (Fed) can always print money to pay off the debt, hidden
risks might be lurking. As oxymoronic as it may sound, the
biggest risk to the economy and the U.S. dollar might be, well,
economic growth! Let us The U.S. government paid an average
interest rate of 2.046% on the $11.0 trillion of Treasuries
outstanding as of the end of November. Treasuries include Bills,
Notes, Bonds and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS).
At 2.046%, the cost of carrying the Treasury portfolio currently
costs the government $225 billion per annum; about 6% of the
federal budget was spent on servicing the national debt. 1 While
total government debt has ballooned in recent years, the
interest rate paid by the government on its debt has continued
on its We only need to go back to the average interest rate paid
in 2001, 6.19%, and the annual cost of servicing Treasuries
would triple, paying more than Greece as a percentage of the
budget. Not only would o