The rapid run-up in Treasury yields could hit American consumers hard, raising borrowing costs across housing and auto loans and potentially hammering the stock market.
Page A5From§Eachthe early bird edition — 2 September 2026
Congress votes 85-5 and 396-13 to lower housing costs, awarded higher loan costs instead.
As it ran on the front
I found the page. Give me a second — I had it right here, folded over the visor in the car, because the glovebox is a disaster, my wife will tell you, everything ends up on the visor. Eighty-five to five. That's what I wrote, June 22nd, underlined it twice, because you don't see numbers like that. Eighty-five to five in the United States Senate. I keep coming back to it.
They called it the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Big name for a bill, but okay, I'm not going to hold the name against anybody. What I wrote down is that it passed 85 to 5 in the Senate, and — I've got this on the next line — 396 to 13 in the House, a month before that, May 20th. Three hundred ninety-six yes. Thirteen no. I had to write it twice to believe it. That's what's on the page.…
…(cont) And the point of it, they said — this is right here, I'm reading it back — the point of it was to lower the cost of living of houses. Their words, near enough. Support affordable housing. That's what 85 senators and 396 representatives put their names to.
So I'm driving the car — and I want to say up front, this car does not owe me anything at this point, it's given me more years than it should have — I'm driving it down to the garage on Foster because the fan belt's been singing at me for a week, and the guy there's got the radio on, and the man on the radio is talking about something else entirely. Treasury yields. I didn't know what that was either, so I wrote it down too, right under the 85 to 5, same page, because that's where I happened to be sitting. Rapid run-up, they said. Could hit consumers hard. Raise borrowing costs — and this is the part I circled — across housing and auto loans. Both. Same sentence.
Now here's my trouble, and maybe you can help me with it, because I'm just a guy with a notebook. Eighty-five to five is a vote about lowering housing costs. That happened in June. The yields going up — that's a September story, same week I'm writing this, near as I can tell from the dates on the page. So I've got a bill that passed almost nobody-voted-no, sitting right next to a rate that didn't get a vote at all, and the rate's the one that shows up on the loan paper.
I stood at the counter at the garage a long time with that. The guy wanted forty for the belt, said give him till Thursday, and I thought — eighty-five senators. Five said no. I don't even know what the five were thinking, but eighty-five said yes, this is going to help. And the fella on the radio is talking like nobody in that room heard him.
I'm not saying the two things are connected. I don't have that written down anywhere, and I don't like to write down things I can't find later. All I've got is a page with two numbers on it: 85 to 5, and a rate going up the same week, on housing and on cars. Both.
Oh — and one more thing, before you go. Sorry, I know you're trying to get out the door. The bill signing, the vote count, all that — that's the number that made the news. Whose number was the other one?
“Eighty-five to five, three-ninety-six to thirteen — that's practically the whole Congress holding hands to say your mortgage should cost less. Same week the ink's dry, the bond market raises your housing and your car payment anyway, and nobody put that to a vote. That's the trick: they let you watch the number that passed while the number that actually hits the loan paper never had to answer to anybody.”
“Eighty-five to five, three-ninety-six to thirteen — that is about as bipartisan as this town gets, that's Congress doing its job, on time, in writing. Now if the bond market decided to have its own opinion the same week, that's a Federal Reserve conversation, that's global capital flows, that is a totally separate policy matter — well, technically it's the same loan paper the bill was supposed to shrink, but structurally, separate story. Did I just argue the housing bill and the mortgage rate aren't related? That's not what I meant to say.”
The receipts
· The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in an effort to lower the cost-of-living of houses and support affordable housing in the country. The legislation will hea from the morgue, 23 Jun 2026
· The United States Senate votes 85–5 to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bill aimed at lowering the cost-of-living of houses and supporting affordable housing in the country. The bill will from the morgue, 22 Jun 2026
· The U.S. House of Representatives votes 396–13 to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, aimed at helping offset the cost-of-living and support affordable housing in the United States. The bill he from the morgue, 20 May 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.