(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the recent rise in U.S. Treasury yields is consistent with global trends and does not warrant consternation, even as concerns about lingering price pressures have pushed some benchmark rates to their highest levels in more than two decades.
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“I would be concerned if we had some sort of idiosyncratic rise,” Bessent said in an interview with Axios published Saturday. “We don’t see people selling Treasuries to buy German or Japanese bonds.”
“I can’t control the bond market. What I can do is get people to slow down and think,” he said.
Bessent also touted U.S. financial intervention to save Argentina and left the door open for similar bailouts in the future.
“I would say that the stabilization of Argentina led to a radical change in Latin America, something generational or perhaps the first time in history, that we have never had so many Latin American countries allied with the United States,” he said. “So could we do this again? Sure.”
Last year, the Trump administration bought the peso and provided the government of Javier Milei – a Trump ally – with a $20 billion swap line, which helped Argentina defend its currency and avoid a full-blown economic crisis.
The United States also helped Japan support its currency, including organizing the first coordinated yen-purchasing intervention between the two countries since 1998.
Although weak U.S. jobs data released Friday provided some relief, Treasuries have suffered a months-long rout that briefly pushed the benchmark 10-year yield this week to its highest level since 2002.
High fuel prices resulting from a protracted war in Iran, concerns about U.S. fiscal health and rising spending on artificial intelligence have combined to drive up borrowing costs.
The cost of living is a major issue for voters, who are bearing the brunt of record diesel prices and mortgage rates that are now well above 7%. That puts increased pressure on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which faces the growing risk of a defeat in November’s midterm elections that would give Democrats control of both houses of Congress.
Bessent argued that the ripple effects of the war in Iran mask the underlying economic strength of the United States, pointing to “strong” consumer spending and median wage growth in line with overall inflation.
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