US Economy - Abandoning Treasurys for safer bets overseas

"US treasury bonds are not as safe a bet as the once were," said Michael Hasenstab, who manages the Templeton Global Bond Fund /quotes/comstock/10r!tpinx (TPINX 13.39, -0.08, -0.59%) . Countries that didn't have the massive amounts of leverage and indebtedness before the recession "are coming out of this a lot quicker and without the overhang and inhibitors the U.S. is experiencing."

Hasenstab and other bond investors have begun to question whether the U.S. Treasury bond market can still be called the safest investment in the world, as attention to Washington's growing deficit spending has come into sharper focus with the debt problems that are engulfing Greece, Portugal and Spain.

From Australia to Brazil, an emerging crop of nations that are in comparatively better fiscal shape are increasingly seen as a surer return on the investment.US

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