What the Heck Is Going On in the Bond Market? | The Ezra Klein Show

A lot of things are on track to get more expensive. The U.S. Treasury market is the bedrock of the global economy. When yields on those Treasuries go up, mortgages, car loans and credit cards get more expensive, and it can hit the stock market, too. And yields have been going up – to levels we haven’t seen consistently since before the Great Recession – inspiring some erratic and futile efforts from the Trump administration to push them back down. So why are yields creeping higher? What is the administration trying to do about it? And if this continues, what’s in store for the economy? Robin Wigglesworth is the editor of the Financial Times blog Alphaville, a host of the podcast “The Story of Money” and the author of the forthcoming book “A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World.” This conversation was recorded on August 24, 2026. 00:00 Intro 03:38 What Is a Treasury Bond? 06:56 How Bonds Impact You 11:17 How Bonds Are Traded 22:40 Hedge Funds and Hidden Fragility 26:07 Is the Cheap-Money Era Over? 29:37 Trump vs. the Bond Market 33:21 Bessent’s Bond ‘Tool Kit’ 42:59 Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole 46:37 Bond Vigilantes 49:46 What a U.S. Debt Crisis Would Look Like 52:50 How A.I. Fits Into This 56:23 Book Recommendations Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/op... Watch more on ‪@EzraKleinShow‬ Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...