Selling Problems Show Up in Long-Term Treasury Securities

April 21, 2024 (EIRNS)—"America’s Bonds Are Getting Harder To Sell,” the Wall Street Journal warned in an April 14 article which reported that $8.9 trillion in outstanding U.S. Treasury debt has to be rolled over in 2024, on top of which Federal deficits are projected to add $7 trillion in new debt, so that in total the Treasury will be issuing roughly $16 trillion in debt, in one year, into a $26 trillion market. The Journal was reporting that recent Treasury sales of longer-term securities have gone badly, with the primary dealer banks having to buy sizable tranches of the new debt themselves—demanding interest yields higher than the Treasury intended to pay—and then resell it at elevated yields as the auctions ended; these are called “tailing auctions” because the interest rate the Treasury has to accept “tails off” higher toward the end of the auction.