Around $US10 trillion bonds are trading at negative yields....

Around $US10 trillion bonds are trading at negative yields. Negative yields involve a loss of capital invested. Investment mandates force fund managers to purchase bonds, even if yields are negative. Similarly, liquidity regulations require banks, insurance companies, others to hold these securities.
At the macro level, debt can only be reduced through growth, inflation, currency devaluation or default. All these involve some element of wealth transfer from savers.Currently growth is weak. Devaluation is difficult and debt default is on a scale that would destroy the financial system. Policy makers are thus seeking to covertly use negative rates to reduce debt levels. This is a slow confiscation of capital from savers.Layer on this an inverted yield curve and you start eating into the core principals of the banking model - borrow short / lend long.There is no easy way out. The longer term consequences of the vast scale of the quant easing programme have to be unwound sometime - we are now entering this period