Mnuchin warns of inflation risk, 3.5% Treasury yields

U.S. government debt yields edged up Thursday, with the 10- and 30-year rates hitting their highest levels since June, as stocks advanced on a temporary debt ceinling deal by Congress and a drop in weekly jobless benefit claims.

Steven Mnuchin, the former U.S. Treasury secretary, warned about the risks of breaching the debt ceiling, overspending by Biden’s administration and concerns that it could further fuel inflation.

“I do worry that this will be ongoing inflation, and we could easily end up with 3.5% 10-year Treasuries, which again just increases the cost of the national debt and creates budget issues,” Mnuchin said Thursday at the Bloomberg Invest Global virtual conference.

Mnuchin didn’t specify when this could happen. Yields are currently about 1.55% having doubled since last October, but he pointed to rising oil prices as evidence of inflationary pressures and said it was time for the Federal Reserve to normalize the fiscal policy.