U.S. Department of the Treasury

Money Moves

Running expanded buyback operations through the Bureau of the Fiscal Service

The Treasury bought $5.19 billion of long-dated bonds on Sept. 10, less than the $6 billion cap it had announced the day before. The 20-minute operation targeted 10- and 20-year notes and was meant to calm a market rattled by inflation fears and a $40 trillion national debt.

Updated Yesterday

Money Moves

Running expanded buyback operations to support the bond market

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's $6 billion bond buyback failed to cool the market again Thursday. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.69%, barely below Wednesday's spike to 4.85%, and a $39 billion auction of 10-year notes cleared at 4.834%, the highest since 2007.

Updated 2 days ago

Rule Changes

Issuing agency for the proposed rule

The Treasury Department proposed a rule on September 3 that would end federal tax-exempt status for private schools and colleges that give students any benefit based on race. The Internal Revenue Service estimates 18,000 institutions could be affected, along with 750,000 students holding race-based scholarships.

Updated 5 days ago

Force in Play

Running the Economic Fury campaign with fresh designation rounds; GL X1 expired July 17, completing the full reversal of MOU-linked sanctions relief

Treasury's December 2025 shadow fleet designations opened a campaign that turned into war. The U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026, hitting Iran's nuclear and military sites; Treasury ran a parallel 'Economic Fury' financial campaign. On June 17, Trump and Pezeshkian signed the Islamabad Memorandum, and OFAC issued General License X five days later, authorizing Iranian oil transactions through August 21.

Updated Aug 25

Rule Changes

Administering Trump Accounts program

The program launched July 4, 2026, opening for contributions on America's 250th birthday. Treasury deposited $1,000 into 1.4 million eligible accounts, committing $1.4 billion in total; 6 million children are now enrolled.

Updated Jul 7

Money Moves

Brokered failed $500M rescue package

Roughly 1.8 million Spirit Airlines passengers woke up on May 2, 2026 to find their tickets worthless. At 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the eighth-largest US carrier shut down for good, told customers to stay home from the airport, and laid off about 17,000 employees and contractors. The trigger was a creditor group that walked away from a $500 million rescue package the Trump administration had been brokering.

Updated May 31

Rule Changes

Lead implementing agency for retirement access order and Saver's Match

In January 2027, the federal government will start depositing up to $1,000 a year into the retirement accounts of lower-income workers. There is a problem: roughly 27 million of the workers who qualify do not have an account to put it in.

Updated May 31

Rule Changes

Absorbing Education Department's student loan operations

The federal government has managed student loans from the same place for decades: the Education Department's Federal Student Aid office. On March 19, the Treasury Department began absorbing that function.

Updated May 30

Rule Changes

Lead agency on China trade negotiations

In April 2025, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods peaked at 145 percent. Nine months later, President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping describe their relationship as 'extremely good' and are planning four bilateral summits in 2026, including Trump's first visit to Beijing since 2017.

Updated May 27

Rule Changes

Issuing implementation guidance for OBBB provisions

The IRS opened the 2026 tax filing season January 26, launching the first implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025. The law extends 2017 tax provisions set to expire December 2025 and adds deductions for tips, overtime, car loan interest, and seniors.

Updated May 26

Rule Changes

Lead implementing agency

For 23 years, federal rules let Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers stand in for Social Security numbers when opening a bank account. A Trump executive order now tells regulators to treat ITIN use as a potential fraud and trafficking red flag, moving the compliance burden onto banks.

Updated May 21

Rule Changes

Defending CTA in courts while narrowing scope administratively

Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act in 2021 to crack down on shell companies used for money laundering and terrorist financing, requiring 33 million U.S. businesses to report their true owners to FinCEN. Courts in Alabama and Texas declared it likely unconstitutional.

Updated May 19

Rule Changes

Approved systemic-risk action that triggered the legally required special assessment

The FDIC spent 2024–2025 billing big banks for the emergency decision to make SVB and Signature depositors whole. Now, with one quarter left in the planned eight-quarter collection, the agency is lowering that final rate and trying to prevent an awkward ending: collecting more than the losses it's legally required to recover.

Updated May 15

Rule Changes

Owns the sanctions strategy and the political balancing act behind carve-outs

Sanctions are supposed to close doors. On December 17, the U.S. quietly propped two doors back open again, even as it slammed others shut. One narrow lane keeps Sakhalin-2 crude flowing to Japan; the other preserves financial channels for civil nuclear projects, even when payments touch sanctioned Russian banks—both running through June 18, 2026.

Updated May 15

Money Moves

Home agency for Bessent; manages internal ethics screening while defending his role in trade and farm policy

Scott Bessent became Treasury Secretary in January 2025. An ethics agreement required him to sell substantial holdings, including up to $25 million in North Dakota soybean and corn farmland that earned as much as $1 million a year in rent. After months of delays, the Office of Government Ethics warned him in August 2025 that he'd failed to comply on time.

Updated May 10

Rule Changes

Pushing a deregulatory posture that shapes FSOC and influences prudential-policy direction across agencies

In March 2013, U.S. bank regulators issued joint supervisory guidance on leveraged lending to prevent a return of pre-2008-style underwriting excesses, with examiners informally anchoring scrutiny around a roughly six-times-EBITDA leverage benchmark. Over the next decade, banks' pullback shifted riskier deal finance toward private-credit funds, CLOs, and other nonbanks—expanding an opaque "shadow banking" ecosystem even as regulators maintained the guidance was supervisory, not a binding rule.

Updated May 9