A new era in the war on savers

What's happening: Expectations for further central bank easing have pushed yields on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds to near all-time lows.

• Worried about the state of the economy, investors have been shoveling money into safe-haven bonds and savings accounts for much of the last year.
• But the actions of global central banks and traditional banks are now making that prospect much less attractive.

The Fed's 25 basis point cut last month means savers have seen the interest they earn from online banks fall by approximately 15 basis points to around 1.9%, according to data provided to Axios from savings fintech platform MaxMyInterest.

The intrigue: With the recent plunge in yields pushing the 30-year Treasury bond to a record low of 1.905%, and the 10-year yield below 1.5%, bonds are now riskier than stocks, argues Dev Kantesaria, portfolio manager and founder of Valley Forge Capital Management.

• "Despite recession fears ... U.S. equities currently offer the best risk/reward opportunity in the marketplace," Kantesaria tells Axios in an email.
• "The benefits of holding bonds at current near zero interest rates doesn’t compensate investors for the risk that interest rates could rise even modestly from here and cause loss of principal."

The big picture: Online savings accounts currently pay about 20 times more than the average from brick-and-mortar bank savings accounts, and even that is now less than what investors receive from the dividend on S&P 500 stocks.

• With more than 30% of global bonds paying negative yields, cautious investors are running out of places to hide.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker