Bessent backs using US financial power as foreign policy tool

According to Business Recorder, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told an audience on Tuesday that Washington should draw on its financial strength to pursue foreign policy goals. Speaking at SMU Cox School of Business, he said the aim is to build allies in the Western hemisphere. He singled out Argentina, saying he had judged President Javier Milei's economic policies to be sound.

Last year Washington gave Argentina a multibillion-dollar support package intended to shore up its currency and strengthen Milei before midterm elections. Bessent's remarks marked an open admission, the report said, that the Trump administration is prepared to direct US financial resources toward influencing politics and economies abroad. Rights groups argue that the military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and the seizure of Nicolas Maduro are imperialist and amount to extrajudicial killings, while Trump says they advance US interests.

Bessent also discussed the coordinated US and Japanese action to buy yen on July 31, which aimed to contain the sell-off in yen and Japanese bonds before it reached global markets. The Financial Times reported that he warned traders that betting against him could be costly. Outcomes have been mixed: the yen hit a seven-month high on Wednesday, while the 30-year Treasury yield reached its highest since 2007 and mortgage rates hit 6.85%, their highest since June 2025, in the week ended September 4.