In attempting to avert a growing problem in the Treasury bond market (i.e., rising bond yields heading into the midterm elections), Treasury Secretary Bessent may have inadvertently helped shine an unwanted spotlight on why those rates are rising in the first place. Secretary Bessent seems to believe that the path of least resistance for yields is higher. If he didn’t, why bother intervening to suppress yields? In this Economics Weekly, Richard de Chazal discusses what factors are driving yields higher and the historical response from policymakers.
