Certainly there has been no indication that such people have begun to dump stocks and bonds to pay for the retroactive taxes.

"If there's a whiff of bad news, people are dumping bonds," said a trader at one major firm.

Unnerved by those crises, many investors dumped bonds backed by aggressive home equity loans made to people with good credit.

The Government is trying to expand the economy with more spending, and this has spooked investors who had dumped bonds and sent their yields soaring.

This country has become fixated on the bond market because prices have fallen as investors have dumped long-term bonds, forcing their yields to rise.

If investors believe the economy and inflation will start to grow, they might start dumping bonds in favor of stocks.

But investors did not let the misfortunes of the nation's largest bank holding company scare them into dumping other bonds.

For the last several months, investors worldwide have been dumping stocks and bonds almost indiscriminately and putting their money into Treasury bonds.

Ahead of the end of the fiscal year on March 31, banks are dumping bonds to offset losses on stocks.

True, the experience of a spectacularly falling dollar could prompt nervous investors to dump stocks and bonds.