Quote:
Originally Posted by John Mercier
No. You can't.
Once the bond is purchased it will pay the dividend for the life of the bond.
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Every bond has an expected rate of return at the time of purchase. If you buy a long term bond when inflation is expected to be 2%, and then inflation jumps to 10%, your return is destroyed and you lose--the money you get back in coupons is less than the rate of inflation. The only way to get out of this trap is to sell the bond...at a loss.
But staying on topic--it's one thing to argue for the free market to set compensation in a competitive situation, but it's silly to assert free market capitalism is fair/appropriate when we're talking about a government controlled entity.