U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent: Treasury buybacks aim to calm market "hysteria"

Odaily News, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that the expansion of the U.S. Treasury buyback program last month was intended to calm the "hysteria" building in the bond market and push market prices back toward equilibrium. Bessent said he cannot change the market's equilibrium price but hopes to reduce excessive speculation. He noted that if investors genuinely worried about U.S. debt credibility, they would sell Treasuries and buy German bunds—yet current market behavior does not reflect such concerns.

Bessent dismissed comparisons between the Treasury's bond buybacks and the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing, arguing the measure is more akin to the Fed's past "Operation Twist." The expansion of the buyback program comes against the backdrop of 30-year U.S. Treasury yields climbing to their highest level since 2007.