Peter Schiff, Trump'ın Amerika'nın 40 bin $ ’lık borç sorununun "acısını uyuşturduğunu" söyledi: Kriz vurmadan önce emekliliğinizi koruyun

Peter Schiff says Trump’s ‘numbing the pain’ of America’s $40T debt problem — protect your retirement before crisis hits

Thomas Kent

Sat, August 29, 2026 at 2:15 PM GMT+3 6 min read

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Rising bond yields are sending Washington a warning, according to economist and longtime gold advocate Peter Schiff. The Trump administration may be making matters worse by trying to silence it.

"Just as pain lets you know there is a medical problem that needs attention, if you simply numb the pain so you don't have to feel it, the underlying condition gets worse," Schiff wrote on X (1).

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Schiff accused the administration of "numbing the pain" through what he called "Operation Twist."

He argued that buying long-term government bonds to suppress yields leaves America's underlying debt problem untreated, potentially making an eventual sovereign debt crisis "fatal for the dollar and the U.S. economy."

What the Trump administration is doing

The Treasury Department announced on Aug. 19 (2) that it would at least double the maximum size of certain buybacks involving 10- to 30-year Treasury securities, raising the cap from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation. The larger purchases will run from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.

The announcement followed a bond selloff that pushed the 30-year Treasury yield to 5.34% (3), its highest level since 2007. America's gross national debt also crossed $40 trillion (4).

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. By purchasing more long-term debt, Treasury adds demand that can support bond prices and ease upward pressure on yields. Treasury says its goal is to provide liquidity in parts of the market where investors have offered it large volumes of high-quality securities.

The purchases may offer some temporary relief, but they do not reduce federal spending, deficits, or the amount Washington ultimately needs to borrow. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit had already reached $1.8 trillion during the first 10 months (5) of fiscal 2026.

The current policy also differs from the Federal Reserve's original Operation Twist. Beginning in 2011, the Fed sold or allowed shorter-term securities to mature (6) and used the proceeds to purchase longer-term Treasuries. The program involved hundreds of billions of dollars and aimed to push down longer-term borrowing costs without expanding the Fed's overall securities holdings.

Treasury cannot create money as the Fed can, so its buybacks must be financed. The current purchases are also small beside the roughly $32 trillion market (3) for publicly traded Treasury debt. "Operation Twist" therefore captures its intended effect on long-term yields, although the mechanics and scale are different.

Read More: Millionaires under 43 hold only 25% of their wealth in stocks. Here's where their money is actually going

What rising yields mean for you

Higher long-term Treasury yields can spill into mortgage rates, corporate borrowing costs and other loans. They also raise the cost of servicing federal debt as older securities mature and Washington replaces them with more expensive borrowing.

Also, existing bonds generally lose market value when yields rise because newly issued bonds offer more competitive returns. That can create painful losses for anyone who needs to sell a long-duration bond fund during a rate surge.

Imagine buying a 20-year, $1,000 Treasury paying 3%, or $30 annually. If comparable yields climbed to 5%, its market value would fall to roughly $750, leaving you with a paper loss of about 25%.

An individual bond would still repay its $1,000 face value at maturity, assuming no default, but selling sooner would lock in the loss.

Crisis or not, a diversified portfolio can spread risk across assets that react differently to inflation, interest rates and market volatility.

Add some gold to your financial armor

Gold can be used as a store of value during periods of inflation, currency weakness and economic uncertainty. For example, take two $100,000 portfolios during a downturn.

If stocks and bonds fell 15%, a portfolio holding only those assets would decline to $85,000. If the second portfolio held $10,000 in gold and gold rose 10% while its other assets fell 15%, it would retain $87,500.

That hypothetical gold allocation would soften the loss by $2,500.

If you're curious about adding precious metals to your broader inflation-hedging strategy, a gold IRA from Goldco lets you hold physical gold and other metals while still getting the tax advantages of an IRA.

With a minimum purchase of $10,000, Goldco offers free shipping and access to a library of retirement resources. The company will also match up to 10% of qualified purchases in free silver.

You can download Goldco's free gold and silver information guide to explore whether precious metals could fit your retirement strategy.

Review the rest of your retirement plan

Gold can address only one part of a retirement portfolio. Your mix of stocks, bonds, cash and alternative assets should also reflect your timeline, income needs and tolerance for market swings.

If you have a portfolio of $250,000 or more, platforms like WiserAdvisor can connect you with vetted professionals who specialize in this kind of planning.

Simply answer a few questions about your savings, retirement timeline and overall investment portfolio.

From there, WiserAdvisor reviews its network to match you — for free — with up to three vetted, reputable advisors aligned with your specific needs.

You can then schedule no-obligation consultations with your matches to determine who is the best fit for your long-term goals.

WiserAdvisor is a matching service and does not provide financial advice directly. All matched advisors are third parties and specific financial results are not guaranteed.

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Article Sources

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X (); U.S. Department of the Treasury (); Reuters (); U.S. Department of the Treasury (); Congressional Budget Office (); U.S. Federal Reserve ()

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.