The reason the US president had to back down on tariffs once investors started dumping treasury bondsDonald Trump’s tariff war has spooked stock markets and heightened fears of a recession in the US and Europe. But neither factor appears to have been what motivated the president’s sudden volte-face this week, when he paused most of his “liberation day” border taxes for 90 days.The fact Trump could not ignore was a mass sell-off by investors of US government bonds. But what exactly are bonds, how are they traded – and why are they so central to the current crisis? Continue reading...