Bessent evaluates Treasury cash for debt buybacks, CNBC reports

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is looking at the government’s own checking account and seeing an opportunity. The Treasury General Account, sitting at roughly $950 billion, could become a war chest for an expanded program of US bond buybacks targeting the thinly traded corners of the long-dated debt market. On August 19, the Treasury announced it would double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations, lifting the cap from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per transaction, with operations running from September 9 through November 4. What Bessent is actually doing The focus is on securities with maturities between 10 and 30 years. These are the bonds that have been giving markets fits lately, with the 30-year yield recently hovering around 5.23% to 5.25%. Bessent indicated on August 20 that individual buyback operations could even exceed the $4 billion floor depending on market conditions. The $950 billion TGA balance is the quiet engine making this possible. Under the Biden administration, the target range for that account was $550 billion to $600 billion. The current balance overshoots that benchmark by roughly $350 billion to $400 billion, giving Bessent a cushion to ...