IT IS THE nightmare scenario(噩梦般的情景) for any market: everyone rushes for the exits at the same time and trading seizes up(卡住，停止运转). That kind of crunch was not thought to be possible in the most liquid market in the world. But in early 2020, as the covid-19 pandemic took hold and the global economy falter(蹒跚，衰退)ed, many companies, governments and individuals found themselves in need of immediate cash as their regular income dried up(枯竭，干涸). The easiest asset to sell, precisely because of the supposed liquidity(流动性) of the market, was American Treasury bonds.
对于任何市场而言，这都是噩梦般的场景：所有人同时涌向出口，交易陷入停滞。在全世界流动性最强的市场，这种紧缩原本被认为是不可能发生的。但2020年初，随着新冠疫情爆发、全球经济摇摇欲坠，许多公司、政府和个人因正常收入枯竭而急需现金。最容易出售的资产，恰恰因为该市场所谓的流动性，正是美国国债。
Although Treasury prices usually rise in times of sudden stress in riskier markets, they instead began to slump(暴跌，大幅下降), with few buyers on the other side of the wave of selling. Big banks, usually the biggest dealers in Treasury bonds, were feeling the pinch(感到手头紧，陷入困境) themselves, and so did not step in to facilitate the “dash for cash”. Suddenly, an investment considered to be the ultimate safe asset(安全资产), against which many of the world’s other financial assets are priced, was becoming hard to sell. To stop the market from freezing up(冻结，停止运作) completely, the Federal Reserve had to start buying, eventually acquiring(获取，收购) trillions of dollars in American government debt.
尽管国债价格通常在风险较高的市场突然承压时上涨，但这次它们反而开始暴跌，抛售浪潮的另一侧几乎没有买家。大银行——通常是国债最大的交易商——自己也感到了压力，因此没有介入以促成“抢现金潮”。突然间，一种被视为终极安全资产、许多其他全球金融资产以此为定价基准的投资品，变得难以出售。为了防止市场完全冻结，美联储不得不开始购买，最终收购了数万亿美元的美国政府债务。
The episode(事件，一段经历) was the opposite of what Alexander Hamilton had in mind in 1790 when, as America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, he convinced sceptical(怀疑的) colleagues that the federal government should take on(承担，接受) the war debts of the new country’s 13 states. The United States duly(按时地，恰当地) issued open-ended(无限期的，开放式的) securities that paid 6% a year in interest—the first true Treasury bonds.
这一事件与亚历山大·汉密尔顿在1790年的设想截然相反。当时，作为美国首任财政部长，他说服了持怀疑态度的同僚，联邦政府应该承担这个新生国家13个州的战争债务。美国随后及时发行了年息6%的无限期证券——第一批真正的国债。
A bonding moment
债券时刻