Stanley Druckenmiller leads doubters who think Bessent's bond ploys will fail

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference to outline further sanctions against Iran, at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., Aug. 24, 2026. Evelyn Hockstein | ReutersTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent's bond market interventions have generated a modest decline in yields along with a growing chorus of derision from those who think they won't work over the long haul and could have dangerous repercussions.Wall Street has been generally skeptical that Treasury has enough firepower to manage a fixed income market that saw some $4.7 trillion in debt issued in 2025 alone, a level that could be exceeded this year. Bessent has proposed at least doubling the department's buyback efforts for longer-dated debt issues. Treasury also intervened in currency markets in late July to support the yen so the Bank of Japan didn't have to sell Treasurys, which likely would have raised yields on U.S. debt.The efforts have pushed longer-dated yields off recent peaks that were the highest since before the global financial crisis in 2008, but market experts see the moves as doomed to fail, particularly if the U.S. does not address a fiscal situation in which total de...