Bond Market Rebukes Bessent by Sending Borrowing Costs Ever Higher

Sometimes the house doesn’t win.

At a fireside chat at Southern Methodist University last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent scoffed at those who doubted the wisdom of his interventions in currency and bond markets and dared investors to bet against him.

“It’s my dream,” Mr. Bessent said. “I have asymmetric information. I am the house now.”

He added: “You can bet against me if you want.”

On Monday, the bond market rebuked Mr. Bessent. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds surpassed 5 percent for the first time since 2023 and only the second time since the 2008 financial crisis. Yields represents the interest rate that investors are demanding to be paid in order to buy government debt. The spike in those rates seem to defy Mr. Bessent’s efforts to suppress costs when he ordered the Treasury Department to buy back $5.2 billion of long-dated debt.

Crossing the 5 percent threshold demonstrated the limits of the Treasury secretary’s ability to bend global markets to his will. It also dealt a blow to his credibility as a market oracle.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/business/bond-market-scott-bessent.html