WASHINGTON: Former US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday she was concerned that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other policies were eroding allies’ trust in US commitments, and that some investors were starting to shun US assets.
Yellen told CNBC television that last week’s surge in yields on US Treasury debt, which move inversely to prices, was troublesome given their traditional safe-haven status and called into question “the safety of what is the bedrock of the global financial system, namely US Treasuries.”
“I don’t think we’re seeing dysfunction in the sense of liquidity completely drying up in the markets, but a pattern suggestive of a loss of confidence in US economic policy and the safety of bedrock financial assets is really very worrisome,” Yellen said.