Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks during a TV interview at the White House in Washington.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said ultra-long U.S. bonds are being considered by the Trump administration, according to Bloomberg News.
“If the conditions are right, then I would anticipate we’ll take advantage of long-term borrowing and execute on that,” Mnuchin said in the Bloomberg News interview on Wednesday.
The 50- or 100-year bond idea recently gained popularity in the Treasury but was considered as early as 2009, according to the report by Bloomberg. Issuing long-term debt would alleviate the pressure on taxpayers to stymie the almost $1 trillion annual budget deficit and could mean returns to pension funds despite falling yields.
Mnuchin told Bloomberg the consideration of long bonds and the drop in yields on short-term U.S. debt are unrelated.
In February 2017, the Treasury disclosed that it was studying the possibility of ultra-long bonds, with maturities greater than 30 years, currently the bond with the longest maturity.
At that time, a Treasury advisory group said there would be interest in reviving the 20-year Treasury but not much interest in a 100-year security.
Read more about what Mnuchin said about these ultra-long bonds in Bloomberg’s report.
Staff writer Patti Domm contributed to this report.
