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Sir, We are in danger of fatally underestimating the significance of President Trump’s decision to suspend his tariffs (“Trump puts the brakes on tariffs for 90 days”, news, Apr 10; “Unknown territory”, leading article, Apr 11). What we witnessed on Wednesday were the first moves in a US sovereign debt crisis. Bond investors (the world’s canary in a coalmine) were dumping Treasury bonds, but not simply to cover losses. This was also the day investors lost confidence in America — a profound shift. President Trump’s trade war is causing a fundamental reassessment of the US economy and its financial markets. Investors will demand higher returns for buying Treasury bonds, which means higher borrowing costs for an economy already
