Trump's Fed gamble risks pushing bond rates higher

US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP's unprecedented and escalating attack on the Federal Reserve runs the risk of backfiring by hitting financial markets and the economy with higher long-term borrowing costs.

- BLOOMBERG

For weeks, he has lambasted Chair Jerome Powell for not slashing interest rates deeply to stimulate the economy and — as Trump sees it — lower the government's debt bills.

He's already nominated the head of his Council of Economic Advisors to the central bank's board and is now seeking to oust Governor Lisa Cook, setting the stage for a legal battle over the institution's political autonomy.

Yet for all the Fed's power over short-term interest rates, it's the 10-year Treasury yield — set in real-time by traders around the world — that largely determines what Americans pay for trillions of dollars of mortgages, business loans and other debts.