Overview
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a prime-time keynote at the Republican midterm convention on Sept. 9, the first sitting Treasury secretary to speak at a national political convention in roughly 50 years.
- The department disclosed it would buy back up to $6 billion of long-term Treasury debt this week as part of an expanded program meant to calm long-term yields.
- Markets reacted against the interventions, with benchmark 10-year Treasury yields rising to about 4.84–4.85%, extending a selloff rather than retreating after the buyback announcement.
- Analysts warned that Bessent’s combative, partisan profile and public jawboning of traders risk eroding the personal market credibility the Treasury secretary needs to make buybacks and other tools effective.
- The Treasury is also pursuing coordinated currency operations and sanctions as part of wider economic statecraft, and observers note limits on those tools because federal deficits, Federal Reserve policy, and geopolitical risks remain the main drivers of yields and borrowing costs.