The Friday Review

What we are reading:

Treasury's bond buybacks have not held yields down. Also in the roundup: subprime auto delinquencies 123 basis points off their January record while prime borrowers sit at 0.37%, diesel crack spreads above $100 a barrel against a much calmer Brent, and new New York Fed work on whether wider household stock ownership has changed how rates reach the economy. Two on the longer view close it out: how the credit card killed the traveler's check, and a cast iron foundry the same family has run for 130 years.

🏛️ Treasury's buybacks started at $4B and yields spiked within a day of the announcement, against $32T of public debt equal to annual GDP, interest costs above $1T a year, and CBO projecting $56T within a decade. forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2026/08/20/bessents-bond-interventions-wont-fix-the-real-problem-too-much-debt/

🚗 Subprime auto 60+ day delinquencies fell to 5.67% in June from a 6.90% record in January, while prime borrowers sat at 0.37% and subprime fell to a record-low 15.6% of originations. wolfstreet.com/2026/08/13/the-state-of-americans-auto-debt/

⛽️ Diesel crack spreads reached $102 a barrel while Brent stayed subdued, with Middle East and Russian exports down more than half to 1.6M bpd and US distillate inventories 12% below the five-year average. oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/100-Diesel-Cracks-Signal-a-Much-Tighter-Oil-Market-Than-Brent-Suggests.html

📊 US household stock ownership went from under 30% in the mid-1980s to more than 50% by the early 2000s, and new New York Fed research asks whether that has damped how much consumer spending responds to rate changes. libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/08/has-broader-stock-market-participation-changed-how-interest-rates-affect-the-economy/

🧳 American Express earned on more than 90 days of float on traveler's checks in the 1950s, then used it to fund the negative float of the credit card it launched in 1958, which went on to kill the traveler's check. bankingjournal.aba.com/2026/08/from-the-vault-travelers-checks-and-creative-destruction/

🍳 Lodge has made cast iron in Tennessee since 1896, still controlled by the founding family across six generations, and pays employees 20% of pretax profits, half in quarterly bonuses and half into retirement. wsj.com/business/the-cast-iron-company-that-has-been-controlled-by-the-same-family-for-130-years-c3b55239