U.S. debt is getting more expensive: the Treasury triples its buyback and fails to convince the market

U.S. debt is getting more expensive: the Treasury triples its buyback and fails to convince the market

Lending money to the United States has become more expensive. The interest on 30-year Treasury bonds reached 5.35%, its highest level since 2007, and the 10-year bond went above 4.9%.

The Treasury's attempt

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to slow that rise. He announced that his office would buy back up to 6 billion dollars in bonds, up from the 2 billion planned before: three times as much.

It did not work. Interest rates kept rising and the market received the move coldly. A bond is a loan: whoever buys it lends money to the government, and the interest is what they get in return. If interest rises, the government pays more for its debt.

Why interest is rising

Several causes add up. First, inflation in the United States is still high: the producer price index rose 5.4% over a year, after 4.7% the previous month. Second, expensive oil pushes up the price of almost everything. Third, traders put the odds of a Federal Reserve rate increase on September 16 at about 70%.

And fourth, there is deeper doubt about the country's accounts. "Long-term yields reflect much more than expectations about the Federal Reserve: they also include concerns about debt sustainability, supply dynamics and fiscal credibility," explained Valentin Bissat, chief economist at Mirabaud Asset Management.

It is not only the United States

The rise is also felt in Europe. The interest on German 10-year debt went above 3.5%, Italian debt above 4.3%, and British debt reached 5.3%, its highest level since 2007.

What it means for people

When the U.S. government pays more interest, the cost of money rises for everyone: loans, mortgages and corporate debt. It also makes credit more expensive in emerging countries, because money prefers to go where it earns more. And since bonds compete with shares, stock markets have fallen in recent days.

Sources: Expansión, Gestión and Cinco Días (Spain and Peru), Financial Times, Bloomberg, MarketWatch and CoinDesk (United States). September 10, 2026.