An off-hand comment by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that “issuing longer-term securities certainly seems to make some sense” February 22 aggravated the sharp sell-off in long-term Treasury securities and widened the differential between shorter and longer maturity bonds. That’s a man-bites-dog story, because central banks engaged in monetary stimulus usually want to keep long rates down. That helps households and corporations take on cheaper long-term debt to buy houses and capital equipment. But Secretary Yellen, a former Fed chair, has another problem on her agenda: Financing a government deficit swollen to an ... (full story)