There are c.$13 trillion of negative yielding bonds globally. This accounts for 25% of all investment grade bonds. Please take a minute to digest this. Investors are willing pay $13 trillion for an investment that would not give them back their principal. This amount is a quarter of the bond market. This is the warped logic that the world of investing has come to accept.
It first started with sovereign bonds. When the ECB went into negative interest rates to boost the economy, the governments who could get away with negative bonds issued them ie Germany. Japan then followed suit. It was initially thought that the arrangement would be temporary, when the economy gets back in shape, we can stop. Well, we didn't.


The chart above from Bloomberg shows the magnitude and breakdown of negative yielding bonds. Today, corporates are issuing negative bonds as well. This is an excerpt from a reputable...