From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to free expression from the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal.

I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large of the journal. If you're not already subscribing to us,

please do sign up at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you do you're listening.

With Donald Trump's second inauguration just days away, the economy looms large on the new president's agenda. Trump and his

economic team are keen to get straight to work, just as they did eight years ago on a big tax cut,

a renewal, in fact, of that Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, whose provisions are set to expire this year.

Now, the President is also expected to issue a slew of executive orders right off the bat,

as soon as he takes office, aimed at deregulating the economy and boosting energy production,

among other things. But Donald Trump's also taking office at a time of growing anxiety in financial markets.

Since the Federal Reserve started cutting interest

rates in September, bond investors have taken fright. Bond yields have gone the other direction

from the Fed's policy rates. That's an unusual phenomenon. The yield on the US government's

10-year treasury bond has risen by a percentage point in the last four months, as markets remain

nervous about inflation, which remains

persistently above the Fed's target of 2%, and the burgeoning fiscal deficit. Although, as we record

this on Wednesday, I should say, some mildly encouraging inflation numbers have helped ease the

bond sell off a little bit. Scott Bessent, Donald Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary,

has set as a goal for the new administration's economic policy what he describes as a

three-three-three approach. That would be 3% GDP growth, up from the trend rate of the last few years

of a little over 2%, a 3% fiscal deficit, that's down

from the current 6.5% that we have, and an increase in oil production of 3 million barrels

...