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The US Department of the Treasury completed a record $14.7 billion debt buyback operation on March 10, 2026 with settlement on March 11, 2026. This marks the largest single Treasury buyback in history. The operation targeted nominal coupon securities maturing between April 15, 2026, and February 29, 2028. The Treasury had announced a maximum par amount of $15 billion to be redeemed, but accepted $14.697 billion in par value from offers totaling nearly $41 billion submitted by participants. This buyback is part of the Treasury’s regular debt management strategy, which includes: Improving liquidity in the massive US Treasury market over...

Those who do not learn from the past (and lets face it that’s most of us) are condemned to repeat it. When I was 15 years old my parents made me read the biography of Charles Ponzi. They felt that if I learned about this scammer it would help protect me in the future, when I would hopefully make my fortune. What I learned from that book, is that if something is too good to be true, it generally is. While I can’t say that I’ve never been scammed, I will say that I haven’t been scammed too badly, other...

As the bailouts in the current bust inexorably mount, financed in rapidly increasing U.S. government debt, one might wonder whether a default on Treasury debt is imaginable. In the course of history, did the U.S. ever default on its debt? Well, yes: The United States quite clearly and overtly defaulted on its debt as an expediency in 1933, the first year of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. This was an intentional repudiation of its obligations, supported by a resolution of Congress and later upheld by the Supreme Court. Granted, the circumstances were somewhat different in those days, since government finance still had...