The reporting on the riots in Britain seems to be rather strange. Anyone attempting to talk about problems in these areas is immediately pounced on for ‘excusing the violence’. There is a continuing drumbeat about the ‘lawlessness’.

First off, the ‘rioters’ are primarily young males, who are not especially noted for decorum or common sense. They don’t generally listen to adults, and they are in the middle of the transition to adulthood and are trying to prove themselves worthy. In ‘primitive’ societies they have extremely dangerous rites of passage to channel all of the excess energy, but modern societies have extended childhood and removed most of the dangers.

If the people are wondering why the rioters have no respect for the law, maybe they should spend more time reading the news. The rioters have as much respect for the law as major defense contractors, members of Parliament, or the police.

When response to the troubles is faulty because all of the major leaders are on vacation somewhere ‘ritzy’, and the police response is somewhat hampered by the recent resignations at the top of the command structure, the complaints about the rioters look a bit hypocritical.

Oh, the simple answer to why they are so destructive is that they have no stake in their communities. Society has provided them with no reason to care about it, because they have no reason to believe they will ever own anything in it.

CNN reports on today’s bond sale:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The stomach-churning stock market roller coaster is ramping up demand for Treasuries, even after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States on Friday.

Combine stock market volatility with the Federal Reserve’s gloomy comments about the economy, and it’s no surprise then that hunger for low-risk assets remains high.

As a result, the 10-year yield fell to 2.09% Wednesday afternoon, trading near its record low close of 2.06% last seen in December 2008.

A $24 billion auction of 10-year notes also drew solid demand, even at a 2.14% yield — the lowest 10-year yield at auction, ever on record.

So, after an S&P downgrade the US is selling bonds at a lower interest rate that ever before. Does this mean if the US is downgraded again people will pay the Treasury to take their money for 10 years? If you think that’s an absurd question, you are probably unaware that the interest rate on shorter term T-bills has been negative for some time, i.e. people are already paying Treasury to take their money for shorter periods.

This isn’t as insane as it seems when you consider that the most common place people have kept large sums of money was real estate, and that’s in the tank. Bank deposits are only guaranteed up $250K, so the safest place to put large quantities of cash is in T-bills.