4+ day, 18+ hour ago   (425+ words) Weak economic data is supposed to pull long-term interest rates down. Instead, Treasury yields have been climbing, and Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks says that reversal is evidence that demand for U.S. government debt is weaker than it looks. That…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (451+ words) Anthony Scaramucci lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, but nearly a decade later he thinks the experience gave him a diagnosis for what can happen when successful Wall Street figures get close to political power. He calls it…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (216+ words) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shocked the bond market on Aug. 19 by doubling planned purchases of long-dated government debt, briefly pushing the 30-year Treasury yield sharply lower. Less than two weeks later, the 30-year yield is back above 5.28%, essentially where it…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (277+ words) “This is debt reshuffling, not debt reduction,” Bilello said. His objection goes directly to the tension inside Bessent's intervention. Treasury wants to improve liquidity and ease pressure at the long end of the yield curve without pretending that buying outstanding…...

3+ week, 12+ hour ago   (486+ words) Bitcoin surged roughly 23% last week, its best weekly gain in more than three years, while stocks fell, gold gained 5% and the dollar weakened. The remarkable part came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled planned buybacks of longer-dated government bonds: the…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (316+ words) Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett has put a number on Scott Bessent’s bond-market problem: 5% on the 30-year Treasury yield. If the Treasury secretary’s expanding buyback program can’t push long rates below that threshold, Hartnett expects pressure to spread beyond…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (304+ words) The inflation data are finally giving that argument something tangible. Consumer prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier in July, down from 3.5%, while core inflation slowed to 2.5%, its lowest level since February. Producer-price inflation also came in softer than expected, adding…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (189+ words) That makes the relationship with Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh increasingly awkward. Warsh has argued that higher market rates can do some of the Fed's inflation-fighting work without another increase in the federal funds rate. Bessent is now explicitly trying…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (254+ words) That doesn’t make the bond market harmless. Selling pushes Treasury prices down and yields up, raising the government’s borrowing costs while feeding into mortgages, corporate financing and valuations across financial markets. A sufficiently violent move can constrain policymakers regardless of…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (398+ words) The numbers make the argument difficult to ignore. The 10-year Treasury yield is around 4.7%, above the roughly 4.5% level widely viewed on Wall Street as Bessent’s informal red line, while the 30-year yield has moved above 5.28%, also beyond the level traders…...