The Lombard Review
Markets & Finance

"Sell America": are foreign investors walking away?

Term premium on governance risk

Brokers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
Brokers on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangePhoto: Thomas J. O'Halloran / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

The US Dollar Index collapsed to a three-year low near 98, fueling whispers of an institutional 'Sell America' wave across global foreign exchange and sovereign debt desks. The persistent liquidation of dollar-denominated assets reflects a profound reassessment of the institutional and governance risk premia embedded across the United States financial architecture.

A U.S. hundred-dollar bill
A U.S. hundred-dollar billPhoto: Revisorweb / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

The Governance Risk Premium

International sovereign wealth funds and central banks allocate hundreds of billions into US Treasuries on the core assumption of institutional predictability, judicial independence, and adherence to international commercial norms. When trade policy is conducted via unilateral decrees, tariffs are deployed as geopolitical cudgels, and fiscal deficits compound without legislative constraint, that institutional bedrock dissolves. Fixed-income investors are demanding a higher term premium to hold US long-duration obligations.

Lower Manhattan seen from Jersey City
Lower Manhattan seen from Jersey CityPhoto: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Structural Diversification Pressures

While the dollar remains the undisputed medium for international trade settlement, its share of global central bank reserves is facing an accelerating secular decline. Foreign reserve managers are shifting marginal allocations toward sovereign European debt, Asian regional currency baskets, and physical bullion. The 'Sell America' dynamic is not a temporary trading trend; it is the structural market repricing of a sovereign whose fiscal trajectory and policy unpredictability have permanently eroded its international risk-free status.