{"id":18716,"date":"2026-08-24T18:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=18716"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:50:48","slug":"treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-becomes-the-tip-of-the-spear-in-the-war-on-iran-and-the-bond-vigilantes-as-the-u-s-readies-more-financial-firepower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=18716","title":{"rendered":"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent becomes the tip of the spear in the war on Iran and the bond vigilantes as the U.S. readies more financial firepower"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Facing an increasingly aggressive Iran and a slumping bond market, the Trump administration is betting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can use the financial weapons in the government\u2019s arsenal to achieve victory on both fronts.<\/p>\n

\n

The idea is to kill two birds with one stone: getting Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz would lower oil prices and take pressure off the bond market as investors lower inflation expectations. Still, Bessent faces a tall order in trying to coerce an Iranian government that\u2019s committed to holding on to the strait.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Bessent detailed the \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d the U.S. will level against Iran, focusing on countries that do business with the regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd any nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation,\u201dhe wrote in a Financial Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a>. \u201cTo become a sanctuary for terror is to become, in the eyes of the United States, a global pariah.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury Department will expand its use of secondary sanctions against entities and countries that engage with Iran. Bessent also said any country that helps Iran will be removed from the dollar-based financial system.<\/p>\n

The measures could put a big target on Chinese companies, which buy Iranian oil and handle Iran-linked financial transactions.<\/p>\n

That would complicate President Donald Trump\u2019s planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington in late \u200bSeptember as both sides work to avoid any escalation in their bilateral trade tension.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates\u2014which has historically offered Iran vital access to global markets\u2014has already declared an embargo on trade and transactions with the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s economy is under extreme pressure from the U.S. naval blockade, which has slashed oil exports that drive the country\u2019s revenue as well as critical imports. <\/p>\n

Top Iranian officials have been sounding the alarm on the economic the damage being inflicted<\/a>, with parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf\u00a0pushing back against hardliners<\/a> who reject negotiations with the U.S. and prefer to remain at war.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how strong we are militarily, if the people are hungry and we do not have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,\u201d\u00a0he said on Friday. \u201cAs someone who has experienced war, we understand the true value of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bond market war<\/h2>\n

As Bessent takes the lead in the U.S. war on Iran, he has also intervened heavily in financial markets to battle the \u201cbond vigilantes\u201d who are pushing up the cost of debt financing.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0term was coined by Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni<\/a>\u00a0in the 1980s, referring to traders who protested huge deficits by selling off bonds to push yields higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the deficit is on track to hit $2 trillion this fiscal year despite strong economic growth and low unemployment, and the bond market has finally lost patience<\/a> as lawmakers show no signs of reining it in.<\/p>\n

Higher yields make it more costly to service the $40 trillion U.S. debt, with interest costs at $1 trillion a year, while also raising borrowing costs for consumers.<\/p>\n

Last week, Bessent surprised Wall Street with a plan to\u00a0increase buybacks of long-term bonds<\/a>, after the 30-year yield hit the highest level in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

Yields briefly dipped but went back up a day later as the $4 billion size of the buybacks is minuscule compared to the $32 trillion Treasury market.<\/p>\n

But Bessent will have much more firepower to battle bond vigilantes. Sources told CNBC<\/a> that he could use the Treasury Department\u2019s general account to increase the size of the buybacks.<\/p>\n

The general account is funded with tax revenue and has been built up to $950 billion under Bessent, compared to\u00a0$550 billion-$600 billion during the Biden administration, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The Treasury Department\u2019s more activist role is raising concerns that it\u2019s engaging in financial repression<\/a>, or policies that enable a government to keep interest rates artificially low by influencing markets.<\/p>\n

In addition to the bond buyback scheme, Bessent\u2019s intervention in currency markets with Japan last month was also done in a way that took pressure off bond yields. That included the U.S. selling euros instead of dollars to prop up the yen and Tokyo\u2019s use of the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities Repo Facility (FIMA).<\/p>\n

According to George Saravelos, head of FX research at\u00a0Deutsche Bank<\/a>, \u201cwe see both the buyback and encouragement to use the FIMA facility for FX reserves as soft-form financial repression policies aimed at containing the long-end of the US yield curve.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing an increasingly aggressive Iran and a slumping bond market, the Trump administration is betting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can use the financial weapons in the government\u2019s arsenal to achieve victory on both fronts. The idea is to kill two birds with one stone: getting Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":18717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent becomes the tip of the spear in the war on Iran and the bond vigilantes as the U.S. readies more financial firepower | Unlock Informed Choices with Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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Ma","author_link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?author=422"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Facing an increasingly aggressive Iran and a slumping bond market, the Trump administration is betting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can use the financial weapons in the government\u2019s arsenal to achieve victory on both fronts. 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