Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images |
“Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” an exasperated Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a press conference Monday, while introducing new sanctions against Iran. Bessent may think that’s still a self-evidently ridiculous question. George W. Bush didn’t want a Great Financial Crisis, nor did Herbert Hoover seek to start a Great Depression. Surely no White House would deliberately hurt the global economy.
Yet for the first time ever, that’s not the case. At home and abroad, the past few days have laid bare the extent to which Trump’s troubles on the economy are self-inflicted.
Last week, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond reached a 19-year high and the administration took notice. Bessent’s solution was to intervene in bond markets by increasing the size of debt buybacks. But yields dropped for only a day before returning to their previous level, reflecting investors’ broader structural fears, including over the $40 trillion national debt.
For that, the White House can thank its own tax cuts, as well as those passed under the first Trump administration. |
