Kai Risdahl

So, you know, it's a much closer thing on the committee than it was in March.

Anyway, it's going to be, unless something really surprising happens, Kevin Warsh in the big chair the next time the Fed meets.

That will be in the middle of June.

I won't see you next time.

Wall Street today, a little up, a little down.

A little mic drop there from Chair Powell.

Oil, though, we are going to have the details when we do the numbers.

The Federal Reserve is holding its short-term interest rates steady, yes, but rates on long-term government debt have been rising ever since the president started his war with Iran.

That's happening partly because investors are worried about all the inflation the war is causing, and partly because the war is adding to an already enormous pile of government debt.

Either way, those higher treasury yields, the interest rate the government has to pay, are affecting mortgage rates and car loan rates, rates on credit cards and the yields that big corporations are having to pay on the bonds that they issue.

What makes that noteworthy is that a lot of companies have been going ahead and borrowing anyway, even though those higher rates are going to cost them.

Marketplace's Justin Ho checked on the corporate bond market and how it's handling all the geopolitical turmoil.

Corporate bonds tend to pay higher yields than government bonds because, in theory, corporate debt is riskier.

And when the war started, corporate bond yields rose.

That's Guy Labat with Jenny Montgomery Scott.

He says that's partly because bond markets were slightly more worried about risk because of the war.

But another reason, he says, is because corporations have actually been issuing a lot of bonds this year.

That's because when companies dump a boatload of new bonds into the market, they have to pay more interest to attract borrowers.

And Labas says companies have been issuing record amounts of corporate debt this year, in large part to finance AI projects.

He says even though interest rates have risen, those companies are going to keep issuing debt because they think those projects are going to generate huge returns over the long run.