U.S. government bond yields have reached new multiyear highs, increasing borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, student loans and other forms of credit. The rise is worsening the country’s affordability crisis, according to Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor.

Reich argues that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not responsible for all of the factors driving yields higher, but that his actions are adding to market concerns about U.S. economic policy.

At 11 a.m. ET yesterday, the Treasury Department announced that it would repurchase $6 billion of 10- to 20-year government bonds. The move was intended to reduce the number of bonds available in the market, increase demand and push down rates, or yields, which had climbed to levels not seen in decades.

Instead, most Treasury yields rose sharply after the announcement. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 4.85 percent, its highest level since November 2023. Yields on 20- and 30-year bonds reached as high as 5.3 percent. When Treasury prices fall, their yields rise.

Reich wrote that Bessent cannot overcome the bond market and that the Treasury secretary’s interventions may be increasing traders’ concerns about the stability and competence of U.S. economic policy.

Inflation concerns are a major factor pushing bond yields higher. Reich pointed first to President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which has contributed to higher oil prices. Brent crude futures are trading above $107 a barrel, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose above 4.9 percent, reaching its highest intraday level since October 2023.

After an escalation in attacks by both sides, Trump advisers are privately suggesting that the conflict could continue through the end of his term in 2029, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The European Central Bank also cited inflation concerns when it raised interest rates Thursday, saying it expected inflation to remain above its target for an extended period. The Wall Street Journal reported on the ECB decision.

Reich also pointed to Trump’s vow yesterday to send a $5,000 check to each of America’s 270 million adults if Republicans retain control of Congress in November. The proposal would cost $1.3 trillion, an amount that Reich described as prohibitively expensive for a country with a $40 trillion national debt. He also wrote that paying people to vote a certain way is illegal. The New York Times has reported on the national debt.

Although Reich said the proposal will not happen, he argued that its mere possibility is contributing to inflation fears. He questioned why Bessent had not attempted to dissuade Trump from making the pledge.

Reich also attributed global inflation concerns to Trump’s tariffs, including the trade war with Canada, and questioned whether Bessent had tried to prevent that conflict. He asked whether the Treasury secretary was using his public platform to reassure world markets.

Instead, Reich criticized Bessent’s remarks at a Republican event yesterday. Bessent warned that the progressive left was relentlessly trying to turn America into a “socialist hellscape.”

“The radical left is relentless in their pursuit to remake America in the image of every socialist hellscape of the last century, to import the misery of failed workers’ paradises like the Soviet Bloc, Caracas and Havana,” Bessent said.

Bessent added that the left’s “version of equality would drag everyone down instead of lift everyone up” and urged attendees to continue the political fight against socialism.

Reich described the remarks as Cold War-style anti-communist rhetoric and said it was especially problematic because they came from the U.S. secretary of the treasury, whose credibility is important for reassuring markets and maintaining global confidence in the dollar.

Together, the developments described by Reich connect the rise in Treasury yields to several policy areas: energy prices, trade, proposed government spending and official economic messaging. The bond repurchase therefore unfolded against broader concerns about inflation and the direction of U.S. economic policy, rather than in isolation.

“I’ve worked with several treasury secretaries and closely watched others, and I can honestly say that Scott Bessent is the worst I’ve ever witnessed,” Reich wrote. His writings are available at