US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended his bond buyback program in contentious congressional hearings Tuesday, as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to its highest level since the 2007 global financial crisis.
Bessent suggested the spike could have been worse without Treasury's intervention; he also defended a separate operation to prop up the Japanese yen as preventing Tokyo from selling its US debt, which would have pushed yields higher.
"Bessent's intervention risks whipping up a blaze that could cause damage well beyond America," PIMCO's former CEO argued in The Economist, as a surge in global bond yields prompted central banks to coalesce around monetary tightening. US Federal Reserve watchers put the odds of a rate hike Wednesday at 92%.