US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Thursday said that he might further increase the US government’s repurchases of Treasuries, attempting to jawbone a government debt market that was beginning to balk after the previous day’s surprise plan to double buybacks.Bessent, a former hedge fund manager with extensive experience in sovereign debt and currency markets, said the recent upswing in long-dated Treasury yields to near two-decade highs was unwarranted against the vibrancy of the US economy.He also pointed to the plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration to curtail government spending that has driven the collective US IOU to the world north of US$40 trillion.
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent attends an event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
In the latest of Bessent’s maneuvers, the Treasury on Wednesday announced that it would double the size of buybacks on longer-dated securities over the next quarter to at least US$4 billion per operation, a move that for one day at least brought the administration some relief from the high bond yields that are rapidly driving up federal debt service costs.“We’re going to increase the size of the buyback,” Bessent said in a CNBC interview. “I would note that it could be more than the [US]$4 billion per issue.”
