U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has decided to double Treasury buybacks to at least $4 billion, in a new version of Operation Twist. Author Steve Hanke analyzes three historical attempts at this type of monetary policy: the United States in 1961-1965 and 2011, and Japan between 2016 and 2024. Japan’s intervention failed, the 1961 U.S. operation was overwhelmed by excessive monetary growth, and only the 2011 operation succeeded thanks to a simultaneous acceleration in money supply growth. However, in the first half of 2026, U.S. broad money growth (M2) is approaching double-digit rates, which, according to the author, makes Bessent’s intervention pointless.
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