Investors are selling government bonds at a pace not seen since 2007. The 30-year Treasury yield climbed above 5.3 percent this week. The 10-year yield hit 4.86 percent on Thursday. Both are the highest levels since the year before the global financial crisis.

Bloomberg reported that the selloff reflects “investor angst over the surging national debt, a flood of long-dated bond sales, and inflation that has been stuck above the Federal Reserve’s target for the past five years.” The head of research at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told clients to reduce their exposure to government bonds.

Interest on the national debt reached $857 billion over the first nine months of this fiscal year… up 13 percent from a year ago. That amount now exceeds what the government spends on Medicare. It exceeds what it spends on the military. The debt itself is approaching $40 trillion. Oil is near $100 a barrel. And the government is borrowing more to fund a conflict it will not call a war.

An analyst at ING said the market “has swung to a clear hiking bias” because investors are “worried about energy price pressures morphing into something more than just a short-lived inflationary episode.”

The machine borrows to fund the conflict. The market says the bill is too high. And the people who lend the government money are walking away. The last time they walked away this fast, the financial system collapsed.

BREAKING

The President Said the Conflict and High Fuel Prices Will Last Until at Least November

Democracy Now reported Thursday that the president said the conflict with Iran and its effects on fuel prices will continue at least through the November midterm elections. It is the first time he has put a timeline on how long the country should expect to pay.

Gas is near $5 a gallon in many parts of the country. Oil is approaching $100 a barrel. The strait that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil supply has been closed for seven months. And the president is now telling voters to expect the pain to last through Election Day.

Last week, the vice president said he would not call it a war. This week, the president says the effects will last through the midterms. The language keeps shifting. The timeline keeps extending. And the cost keeps rising.

The machine does not end the conflict. It manages the expectations.

EXPOSED

Yemen-Backed Forces Seized a Red Sea Port City Near the Bab al-Mandab Strait

Houthi forces from Yemen seized a Red Sea port city near the Bab al-Mandab Strait this week. Democracy Now reported the takeover in its Thursday headlines. The Bab al-Mandab is the narrow passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Roughly 10 percent of global trade passes through it.

The Hormuz Strait is closed. The Bab al-Mandab is now contested. These are two of the most important shipping corridors in the world. The conflict that started between the United States and Iran has now touched Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the global oil supply chain.

The Houthis said the seizure was a response to continued Saudi and American operations in the region. Last week, the Houthis struck Saudi cities and energy sites, injuring more than 70 people. Saudi Arabia vowed to retaliate. Now the Houthis hold a port near the strait.

The machine closed one strait. Now it is losing control of a second. The vice president says it is not a war. The map says otherwise.

DEVELOPING

Twenty-Five Years After September 11, the Cost of the Wars That Followed Stands at $8 Trillion and 4.7 Million Lives

Today is September 11, 2026. Twenty-five years ago, 2,977 people were murdered in the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil. In the quarter-century since, the United States launched wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and now Iran. Democracy Now devoted its Thursday broadcast to the cost.

The numbers come from the Costs of War Project at Brown University: 4.7 million people have perished in these conflicts, including more than 900,000 from direct violence and millions more from the displacement, disease, and destruction that followed. The price tag: $8 trillion in federal spending. That is more than $70,000 per American household.

The national debt was $5.8 trillion on September 11, 2001. Today it is approaching $40 trillion. Investors are fleeing government bonds at a pace not seen since 2007. Interest on the debt exceeds the military budget. And the newest conflict, the one the vice president says is not a war, is adding to the total every day.

Twenty-five years. Seven countries. 4.7 million lives. $8 trillion. And the machine is still running.

They rely on the shadows.
It’s time to turn on the lights.