Treasury’s Bessent says upsized bond buybacks could increase further

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said he may increase again the volume of Treasury bonds the government will repurchase, ​a day after surprising the market with plans to double them.

“We’re going to increase the size of the ‌buyback,” Bessent said in a CNBC ‌interview. “I would note that it could be more than the $4 billion per issue.”

The Treasury on Wednesday announced that it would double the size of buybacks on longer-dated securities over the next quarter ​to at least $4 billion, a move that stanched this week’s rise in 30-year bond yields to 19-year highs. The 30-year yield had rebounded earlier on Thursday, but Bessent’s comments briefly curbed the increase. It last traded at 5.24%.

Bessent ​told CNBC that his objective was to support liquidity in an area of the market that is thinly traded, especially in August, while having ​to compete with a lot of corporate issuance at higher yields, including for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

“Part ​of it is signaling here, and to show that we believe that the yields don’t reflect the underlying fundamentals. This Iran conflict, we will get on the other side of this, we don’t know when,” Bessent said.

A day after total U.S. public debt outstanding crossed the symbolic $40 trillion threshold, Bessent said he and White House budget director Russell ⁠Vought will be embarking on a new fiscal consolidation effort directed by President Donald ⁠Trump, and that combined with efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse, savings of “several hundred billion dollars” could be found.

He added that there was “nothing magic about the $40 trillion figure” and that the U.S. would grow its way out of the debt. In the meantime, he said that the deficit this year has been pushed up by refunds of Trump’s tariffs declared illegal by the Supreme Court, a phenomenon that would not be repeated next year, as new tariffs are being implemented under other trade laws that have withstood court challenges.

He added ⁠that he expected 2026 tariff revenues to match those of 2025, but did not specify whether he was referring to calendar or fiscal years.

Also curbing revenues is a wave of factory and data center construction that is being immediately expensed against corporate profits under the ​Republican 2025 tax cut act, causing a drop in corporate tax revenues, Bessent ​said.

Vox.com, the ⁠news ⁠website recently acquired by ⁠James Murdoch, has laid off four employees as the media ​company looks to refocus its editorial and business operations, a source ‌familiar with the matter told ‌Reuters on Thursday.

The layoffs mark the first restructuring for Vox ⁠under the ⁠new ownership of Murdoch, whose investment firm Lupa Systems ​acquired New York Magazine, the Vox Media podcast network and Vox.com in a deal worth more than $300 million.

The website, co-founded by journalist Ezra Klein ​who is now an Opinion columnist at the New York Times, ⁠became known ⁠for popularizing explainer ⁠journalism, a ​style that has also been occasionally mocked by readers.

Vox’s Editor-in-Chief Swati Sharma ​informed the staff ⁠that the organizational changes have resulted in a few colleagues leaving Vox, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. She said the decision was part of a broader effort to identify growth ⁠opportunities and to better engage its audience across multiple platforms.

Sharma outlined ⁠a renewed editorial focus on coverage areas, including societal shifts, power dynamics and everyday economics. She is expected to share more about Vox’s editorial priorities in the upcoming all-staff meeting on August 26.