With all the other problems Trump is causing, you may not have noticed that his mismanagement of our economy has seriously harmed the bond market. “Anxiety about Donald Trump’s handling of the US economy, and concern that the US President’s war with Iran is driving up inflation, are causing a sell-off in the US bond market,” The Guardian reported Thursday. That means a rise in yields. Because so many other economies are tied to ours, Trumpflation is harming them, too.
This is not just a problem for Wall Street. “Higher yields will push up the costs for consumers and businesses for their mortgages, loans and corporate bonds – hitting their capacity to spend elsewhere, and weighing on the economy more broadly,” The Guardian noted.
So how is President Businessman handling this? Well, after his administration propped up the Japanese yen earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week “that Washington would at least double its purchases of long-term US bonds in an attempt to assuage investor concerns,” as per The Guardian. But one day after that intervention, yields rose again, “reversing most of that early move.”
Trump reacted as he always does when confronted with his own ignorant bungling: by throwing someone else under the bus, in this case Bessent. Asked on Friday evening if he had directed Bessent to intervene in the bond market, Trump told reporters, “No, not at all. … He wanted to do it. … and he did that, yeah.”
Then Trump gave new meaning to the term “Occupy Wall Street.”
In a follow-up question, he was asked if he had spoken with Bessent about another type of intervention; Trump clearly hadn’t. It was also clear Trump had no concept of a plan for bonds. Maybe he was too busy thinking about his upcoming travel with Natalie.
“We have many types of intervention,” was Trump’s Palin-esque response. Then he outdid Palin by far.
“The ultimate intervention is our military, and if we have to use that, we will," the “stable genius” added.
It is astounding that this jaw-dropping display of blatant senility and incompetence hasn’t been front-page news ever since. I know it’s a cliché, but can you imagine if President Joe Biden had made such a remark? Or any President?
