Iran’s Parliament Speaker Warns War on Iran Will Drag Americans Back to 1970s-Style Economic Turmoil as 10-Year Treasury Yield Tops 5.1%
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the United States on X on Wednesday as the benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield surged past 5.1%, warning Washington that its war on Iran would return Americans to the economic conditions of the 1970s.
“Happy 5.1% 10Y America. Mashallah. Celebrate: it’s the floor two years out,” Ghalibaf wrote.
Happy 5.1% 10Y America 🎉. Mashallah. Celebrate: it’s the floor two years out.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) September 24, 2026
You wanted Iran dragged back to 1970s? Nobody told you Iran isn’t for arrogant amateurs? We’ll return you to 1970s rates, plus high gas prices, diesel shortages and bell-bottoms. Enjoy the nostalgia! pic.twitter.com/iB1x8e1PZY
Ghalibaf, who also serves as Iran’s lead negotiator, attached a cartoon collage aimed at US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It set Bessent’s recent boast that he was “the house” against a string of headlines about soaring Treasury yields and turmoil in the bond market, depicting a cartoon coyote confidently pushing a detonator before being blackened by the blast.
Borrowing Costs Hit 19-Year High
The 10-year Treasury yield surged 17 basis points to 5.12% on Wednesday, a fresh high for this year and the highest level since 2007, after topping 5% earlier this month and briefly pulling back.
The yield helps set borrowing costs across the US economy, and its rise pushes up the cost of mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. The 30-year yield also jumped to 5.4%, its highest intraday level since 2007, while the two-year yield hit 4.9%, its highest since 2024. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.1% for the first time in 19 years.
The surge has been driven in large part by the war’s impact on energy prices.
Yields climbed to their highest levels in 19 years earlier this month as oil prices surged on the war and expectations grew that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates. The Fed raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points earlier this month as inflation remained firmly above its 2% target, and investors have raised their bets on another hike in October to 70% as Brent crude for November delivery climbed to around $100 a barrel.
Ghalibaf’s reference to diesel shortages comes as President Trump backed a ban on US diesel exports on Tuesday, adding to concerns about tight fuel supplies and higher energy prices.
Bessent’s ‘I Am the House’ Boast
The collage targeted remarks Bessent made earlier this month. Speaking at a Southern Methodist University event in Texas, Bessent challenged traders to bet against his campaign to strengthen the yen, saying his coordination with Japanese officials gave him rare insight into the Bank of Japan’s next moves.
“I am the house now,” he told the audience.
Fortune reported that Bessent had dared currency traders, and indirectly the bond market, to challenge him as he waged a multi-front battle to stabilize markets amid the turmoil of the war on Iran while trying to slow rising yields that threaten to make government borrowing more costly.
Bessent had also expanded a Treasury buyback program for older government securities, saying the move was meant to calm a “fever” in the bond market, but Treasury yields surged after the beefed-up buyback operation failed to calm the market.
The bond market sell-off adds to mounting economic pressure on the Trump administration nearly seven months into the US-Israeli war on Iran, with fuel prices elevated and Republicans facing difficult prospects in November’s midterm elections.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar)