Crypto: Could Europe Sell Us Debt If A Greenland Deal Doesn’t Come Through?

Some European policymakers have floated the idea of selling off US debt as a way of combating US belligerence, but it may be much more difficult in practice.

The United States’ geopolitical brinkmanship over Greenland has thrown its economic ties to the EU into sharp relief. European powers are considering what instruments it has to combat US belligerence, including the “nuclear option” of offloading US debt.

The tone has shifted after a supposed “framework of a deal” at Davos, and US ambitions to take over Greenland have cooled, for now. But EU heads of state are still preparing possible responses to further escalation.

One option was cutting off access to US markets through the so-called “trade bazooka.” If triggered, it would cut off US companies from the EU market, costing them billions. Another option is offloading the trillions of dollars in US assets held in Europe.

But questions remain regarding its feasibility, as dumping could drastically change the global economic landscape. It could also have knock-on effects for the US financial system’s exposure to stablecoins.

Prior to Jan. 21, European leaders were considering possible responses. While Denmark deployed special forces to Greenland, other heads of state suggested the trade bazooka, which would deny the US access to EU markets.

Others, including former Dutch Defense Minister Dick Berlijn, suggested that Europe could use US debt as leverage. Berlijn said, “If Europe decides to offload those bonds, it creates a big problem in the US. [The dollar] crashes, high inflation. The US voter won’t like that.”

George Saravelos, Deutsche Bank’s chief FX strategist, wrote in a note last weekend, “For all its military and economic strength, the US has one key weakness: it relies on others to pay its bills via large external deficits.”

Saravelos said that the US currently owns $8 trillion in US bonds and equities, which is “twice as much as the rest of the world combined.”

But can Europe actually offload this debt? There are both questions of how the EU could compel a sale and, in a world that is increasingly de-dollarizing, who potential buyers are.

Source: CoinTelegraph