Government Long-Term Interest Rate Hits Highest Level in Nearly 20 Years

The interest rate on 30-year U.S. government bonds reached 5.34% on August 18, 2026 — the highest since the mid-2000s — before easing to about 5.28%. That's 1.75 percentage points above the Federal Reserve's own rate of 3.75%. When these rates rise, mortgages and business loans get costlier, and stock prices tend to fall.