President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. would profit from Venezuelan oil reserves is unlikely to bring relief to drivers anytime soon, according to an expert analysis.
Yahoo Finance senior columnist Rick Newman told "CNN News Central" the deal, as described by the 80-year-old president, is supposed to develop Venezuelan oil fields that haven't even broken ground yet, and he said drivers shouldn't expect it to yield meaningful new oil supplies for a decade or so.
"This sounds kind of phony, to be honest," Newman said. "Energy analysts are saying we're not going to see meaningful amounts of new oil if this actually goes through for at least five years, it could be 15 years. I mean, Trump seems really like he's just trying to grasp at anything to make drivers who are paying $4.09 a gallon think, 'Oh, maybe this will get a little bit better soon,' but I just don't think it's going to."
Newman also pointed to the bond market as a harder-to-parse but more consequential economic signal. The 10-year Treasury yield sits at 4.78 percent, higher than when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent intervened in an unprecedented attempt to push rates down — an intervention that, Newman said, evidently failed. He warned that continued failure risks eroding the credibility of both the Treasury Department and potentially the Federal Reserve, which would compound the problem.
Newman cautioned against reading the rate rise as an imminent crisis, describing it instead as a return to historical norms after roughly 15 years of unusually low borrowing costs. He said Americans should not expect to see 4 percent mortgage rates again, calling 7 percent closer to the historical average.
The real message from the bond market, Newman argued, is about debt, as markets are absorbing a surge of borrowing from the U.S. government, other governments, and companies issuing debt to fund AI infrastructure buildouts. That glut of debt is what's pushing interest rates higher, he said.
"The message from the bond market is, 'Hey, Uncle Sam, now is the time for you to start dealing with that $40 trillion pile of debt,'" Newman said, referring to the national debt. "You have to do something about it. Now is the time."
"Uncle Sam, though," added CNN's John Berman, "has his hands over his ears going, 'La la la la la la la – I'm not listening, I'm not listening.'"
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