TEHRAN -- Iranian Parliament Speaker Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf says U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is lying and failing to manage financial markets.
Ghalibaf was responding to Bessent’s earlier claim that a U.S. blockade of Iran and its latest economic pressure campaign, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast”, would “crush the failing Iranian economy”.
Ghalibaf also reposted an article by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman criticizing Bessent and describing his handling of financial markets as an outright failure.
He ridiculed Bessent’s claim that the United States had “guided 130 million barrels” of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 14 days.
“For real 130s, tell your staffer to pull Moody’s showing $130+ billion in war costs,” Ghalibaf wrote, referring to data from financial analytics company Moody’s.
Ghalibaf also referred to a reported loss involving trading firm Jane Street, saying the company had “burned” more than $130 million “shorting oil” in a single futures roll.
“Liar liar yields on fire,” he added, referring to rising yields on U.S. Treasury bonds.
According to information published on Ghalibaf’s official website, the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds had reached around 5.3%, its highest level since 2008.
The report said the U.S. Treasury had sought through various measures to raise the price of long-term bonds and keep yields lower, in an effort to present a more favorable picture of the US economy and the cost of government debt.
It said, however, that markets