Debt just got more expensive

The first sentence of this article says it all:

The era of cheap money may finally be nearing its end.

Investors pushed up the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to its highest point in nearly four years today, signaling that some consumers will soon be paying more interest on credit cards and home mortgages. The change will have the biggest impact on people who took out home loans with low introductory interest rates but adjust to higher rates in later years.

The good news is that foreign nations are going to stop buying up so much of our debt. The bad news — at least for President Bush’s brand of budget economics — is that foreign nations are going to stop buying up so much of our debt.

Many experts believe longer-term interest rates in the United States have been kept low by the purchase of federal government debt by foreign governments and investors, particularly from Asia.

There are some early indications that foreign buying is easing.