Filling in for Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer, Jeanne Ives and Jim Iuorio dug into a Wall Street Journal report on rising anxiety in the global bond market. The article noted that the 30-year Treasury yield touched 5.339 percent on Tuesday, its highest level since 2007, while the 10-year Treasury sat near 4.7 percent alongside comparable increases in French and German government bond yields. Iuorio explained that rising yields can signal that investors and foreign governments are growing less willing to keep lending the U.S. government money at current rates, a dynamic he tied to concerns about federal spending. He also pointed to a U.S. intervention in currency markets earlier in the month aimed at supporting the Japanese yen, which he said reflected concern that Japan might otherwise be forced to sell off its large holdings of U.S. Treasuries.
To unpack the trend, the hosts brought on Stephen Moore, economist and co-founder of Unleash Prosperity, who agreed that the rise in interest rates is a troubling development tied in significant part to federal spending, adding that both political parties bear responsibility. Moore pointed to a proposed increase in defense spending working its way through Congress and questioned why lawmakers weren’t offsetting new spending elsewhere. Despite those concerns, Moore said he remains broadly optimistic about the U.S. economy, citing continued tax cuts, business expensing provisions, reduced regulation and a wave of foreign direct investment as reasons for confidence, while acknowledging that grocery prices remain elevated for consumers.
Moore and Iuorio discussed the challenge of using economic growth to reduce the deficit given ongoing political resistance to spending restraint in both parties. Moore cited an estimate that roughly $1 trillion in government fraud has been exposed so far this year, referencing scrutiny of an alleged Minnesota daycare fraud scheme and the treatment of Nick Sorrels, a whistleblower Moore said has faced public criticism for exposing the spending rather than praise for uncovering it.
The conversation turned to generational political attitudes, with Moore citing a Wall Street Journal op-ed from entrepreneur Emil Bar noting a 2025 survey finding 42 percent of young conservative-leaning voters said they would support a democratic socialist candidate for president in 2028. Moore said Bar’s essay highlighted a disconnect between young Americans’ enthusiasm for expanded government programs and their reluctance to identify who should pay for them. Moore predicted that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could emerge as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028, and the hosts also discussed Angie Nixon’s Democratic Senate primary win in Florida, criticizing platform positions the hosts characterized as including eliminating the Supreme Court and U.S. Senate.
Moore reflected on decades of speaking to college audiences about the economic history of socialism versus free-market capitalism, saying he has often been approached afterward by immigrants from countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, Hungary, Poland and Russia expressing bewilderment that American students increasingly embrace socialist ideas despite having grown up with the freedoms their families sought out. Iuorio suggested that some voters drawn to sweeping, disruptive political change may see a candidate like Ocasio-Cortez’s unconventional profile as an asset rather than a liability. Moore also cited a recent controversy involving the Democratic Socialists of America publicly commemorating Fidel Castro, calling it emblematic of a broader failure among younger activists to reckon with the human costs of authoritarian socialist governments.
Returning to Bar’s essay, Moore noted that Bar immigrated to the U.S. from Russia at age three, built a personal fortune through ventures including Flashpass and Step Up Social, and credited America’s opportunity structure, rather than government assistance, for his success. Moore said he’d like to see more of that entrepreneurial energy directed toward building tangible infrastructure, pointing specifically to data centers, which he argued the country urgently needs to expand despite growing public and even some conservative opposition to new construction, warning that insufficient capacity could affect everything from cell service to national radar systems.