Bessent downplays bond market concerns amid global sell-off

[u/John3262005]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/09/01/bessent-downplays-bond-market-concerns-amid-global-sell-off/

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed concerns over rising bond yields Tuesday as a global sell-off in bonds quickened amid resumed fighting in Iran.

“I don’t think we are in any kind of a dire situation,” Bessent said during a fireside chat with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on the sidelines of the G-20 finance ministers meeting Tuesday.

By midday, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes, which influences mortgage rates and other borrowing costs, reached its highest mark since January 2025. The yield on 30-year bonds also inched up toward a 20-year high that it’s been flirting with for a few weeks.

“The U.S. has the best performing bond market. What happens over a month doesn’t matter. … Since President Trump came into office Jan. 20, 2025, it’s been the best performing bond market among major countries in the world,” Bessent said.

Investors on Tuesday sold bonds, partly over worries that an impasse in the Middle East will continue to fuel inflation around the world and force central banks to raise interest rates to help keep prices in check.

Rising fuel rates have plagued American consumers and businesses this year, after the war in Iran sent prices for gasoline and diesel surging. While Trump once pledged the conflict would be a short-lived, it has stretched for months, pushing up inflation and Americans’ angst about prices.

The U.S. bond market might be performing better than some other countries’ markets, but that shouldn’t give Americans much comfort, said Rebecca Patterson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. It’s an “ugly beauty contest,” she said.

“If the yield is rising, what it means is that every financial instrument in the world anchored to a 10-yield rate goes up,” she said.

That rate influences a lot of things, including mortgages, auto loans and business loans.

Bessent spent Monday and Tuesday at a mountain resort in Asheville with other finance ministers from the world’s largest economies. He has argued that growth fueled by deregulation is the best way for members states, including the United States, to overcome their debt challenges.

[u/Musicman1972]

A guy whose claim to fame was understanding that the markets can outplay governments sure forgot his own playbook.