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Politics and Policy

Why Are Bond Yields Soaring?

This week, bond yields rose above 5.6% for the first time since 2002. We asked Professor William English, a former Federal Reserve economist, what’s driving the increase and what it means for the Fed, the federal budget, and the broader economy.

Kevin Warsh taking questions at a news conference
  • What Are the Consequences of Resuming Nuclear Testing?

    President Donald Trump said recently that he had ordered the return of U.S. nuclear testing, prompting a warning from Russia. We asked Professor Paul Bracken what test explosions could mean.

    A black and white photo of people observing a nuclear explosion in the desert
  • The China Summit Revealed the Limits of Trump’s Tariff War

    Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-author Stephen Henriques write that a successful campaign to reduce China’s market manipulation would require the kind of collective action that Trump has systematically undermined through his indiscriminate use of tariffs.

    Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in a summit meeting
  • Closed Borders Choke America’s Innovation Engine

    A growing, dynamic economy desperately needs smooth, legal pathways for highly skilled immigrants, says Doug Rand ’10, co-director of the Talent Mobility Fund.

    A U.S. Customs and Border Protection sign in an airport
  • Are Elon Musk’s Politics Driving Away Tesla’s Customers?

    A new Yale working paper sets out to quantify the effect of the controversies over Musk’s transformation of Twitter and his time leading DOGE, and finds that they may have cost Tesla one million sales.

    A Tesla with a bumper sticker reading “I bought this before we knew that Elon was crazy."
  • Trump Boasts of Peace Through Strength in the Middle East. Can He Achieve the Same in Ukraine?

    Trump emphasized U.S. military and economic strength in his Knesset speech, write Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques. Can he also confront Russia from a position of power?

    Donald Trump posing with a "Peace 2025" sign
  • How Nations Use Economic Power to Shape the World Order

    Yale SOM’s Christopher Clayton is helping to pioneer the field of geoeconomics, which explains how countries wield economic weapons to reshape global power dynamics—and what happens when they go too far.

    An illustration of two figures playing poker on a table with a world map
  • We Don’t Know If Tylenol Can Cause Autism—and That Didn’t Change Last Monday

    Dr. Howard Forman responds to the White House press conference drawing a link between the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women and cases of autism.

    Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a press conference
  • Behind Closed Doors, CEOs Say Trump Is Bad for Business

    Yale SOM’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute recently gathered dozens of top CEOs for an off-the-record discussion. The consensus, write Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-author Stephen Henriques, was that Trump administration policies are undermining an economic system that took decades to build.

    Jeffrey Sonnenfeld with participants in the CEO Caucus
  • Supply Chains Need to Become More Agile in an Age of Tariffs‌‌

    The ground rules for global trade have changed dramatically in the last year—and sometimes changed back and changed again—as the U.S. has levied tariffs on rivals and allies alike. Prof. Sang Kim, an expert in supply chains, explains how the shifts in global politics and trade could disrupt the complex systems that get products to your door.‌‌‌

    A wide view of stacked shipping containers in a port
  • How Trump Is Making the Fed’s Job Harder‌‌

    Prof. William English, a former Fed official, says that the Federal Reserve’s mission of balancing inflation and employment has been complicated by a series of wild cards delivered by the administration, including tariffs and an attempt to fire a member of the Board of Governors.‌‌

    President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell touring a Federal Reserve renovation project in July.