Treasury Buybacks Won’t Fix Soaring US Borrowing Costs

With the midterm elections less than three months away, President Donald Trump’s Treasury Department is starting to look desperate about the soaring cost to borrow. The Treasury said Wednesday it would increase its buybacks of longer-term government bonds “by at least double,” an amount analysts figure would bring purchases to $32 billion per quarter. Make no mistake about the motivations: 30-year bond yields this week hit their highest since 2007, pushing borrowing costs higher for the governme