When low interest rates persisted throughout the 2010s, many economists began to view them as the new normal. As recently as 2020, Harvard economists Larry Summers and Jason Furman noted: “Markets suggest that five years out there is a 72 percent chance that nominal rates will be at their current level of effectively zero or even negative.”[1] In fact, after an upward trajectory in 2021, the 10-year Treasury yield has averaged about 4.1 percent since 2022. While various structural factors, such as an aging population and foreign demand for Treasuries, did place downward pressure on interest rates for decades, the upward pressure on interest rates caused by a different set of factors has been downplayed—particularly the upward pressure caused by growing public debt. […]