A flashing red light from the bond markets

The Treasury Department headquarters in Washington, DC, on May 27, 2026. | J.

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As someone with a 401(k), I tend to prefer it when financial news doesn’t reference the 2008 financial crisis.

Unfortunately, that was not to be on Tuesday: the US bond market is having a tough go of things right now, and the 30-year Treasury yield just hit a 19-year high last reached in June 2007.

Other countries, including Japan, Germany, and France, also hit multi-year highs.

So what does that all mean? It sounds technical, but bond yields underlie the cost of borrowing for just about anything, from mortgages to car loans.

Essentially, they’re the rate the government pays to borrow money on different time horizons (10-year Treasury notes or 30-year bonds, for example, often just called Treasuries).

When investors sell government bonds, the price falls, and bond yields go up.

A combination of weak demand and heavy supply right now means the problem is particularly acute.

The current shakiness in bond markets reflects the broader set of problems facing the US and global economies right now: The Iran war is dragging on with no end in sight after the US and Iran blew through a 60-day deadline to reach a more permanent peace deal yesterday, inflation is still a problem, and the national debt in the US and elsewhere is rising.

Huge volumes of corporate borrowing for AI data centers in the US also play a role.

A deepening debt problem View Link Here’s an uncomfortable problem: Part of the reason for climbing US bond yields is investors feeling antsy about the national debt.

But the higher those yields go, the more it costs the government to service that debt, and the more quickly it’s going to accrue.