$4 billion per operation is the new size of Treasury liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated bonds, doubled from $2 billion as borrowing costs press higher.
30-year Treasury yields near 5.3%—their highest in almost two decades—have risen alongside sticky inflation, $40 trillion in federal debt and interest costs running about $2.8 billion a day.
Stanley Druckenmiller, a former mentor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, criticized the move as price management rather than liquidity support, warning that suppressing yields delays action on excessive borrowing.
The broader fiscal strain reaches beyond bonds: Social Security and disability trust funds are projected to be depleted by 2034, after which payroll taxes would cover only about 83% of scheduled benefits unless Congress acts.