U.S. Department of the Treasury

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?️ Bessent makes CEO inroads

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used a swing through the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills — with a pop-up reception, a main-stage speech, and a newsy CNBC hit — to reassure skeptical investing titans about President Trump's plans.

• Bessent told the elite annual gathering: "Tariffs are engineered to encourage companies like yours to invest directly in the United States. Hire your workers here. Build your factories here. Make your products here. You'll be glad you did."

⚡ "Milken Crowd Warms Up to Tariffs While Condemning All the Chaos," Bloomberg News reports, crediting Bessent with swaying "the largest gathering in months of Wall Street's champions of global trade."

• Financial leaders "lined up to say they can live with tariffs and a reworking of trade — just get it settled soon," Bloomberg added.

? Behind the scenes: Richard Grenell — a Californian who's Trump's presidential envoy for special missions — hosted an invitation-only reception for Bessent on Sunday at The Peninsula Hotel that drew 150+ attendees, including Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Pershing Square founder and CEO Bill Ackman, Starwood Capital Group chair and CEO Barry Sternlicht, and Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robin Vince.

• Bessent spoke, and mingled for over an hour.

Caroline Wren — a longtime Trump fundraiser, and partner at Tactic Global, a new, Trump-allied D.C. consulting firm that staged the reception — told Axios that Bessent is "transcending politics" in "one of the most polarizing political climates in modern history, with "praise from Wall Street to Main Street, from Steve Bannon to Jamie Dimon, from Janet Yellen to Rand Paul."

• Charlie Gasparino, a Fox Business senior correspondent and New York Post columnist, credited Grenell with doing "something amazing": "He quickly and quietly assembled a MAGA outpost here in the middle of globalist heaven."

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? The last penny

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

The U.S. Mint is set to strike the last new penny today in Philadelphia, officially closing the book on the 1-cent coin, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports. Each penny costs nearly 3.7 cents to make — more than triple its face value. Ending penny production will save about $56 million annually. ?Flashback: President Trump ordered the Treasury to stop making new pennies in February. Production was already scheduled to end early next year, but most mints finished their runs this summer.

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📈 Charted: Highest since 2007

Data: Factset. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Borrowing costs for governments around the world — including the U.S. — are nearing multi-decade highs as investors bet that the war with Iran will keep inflation elevated for longer, Axios' Emily Peck and Courtenay Brown write. In the U.S., the yield — effectively the government's interest rate — on the 30-year Treasury bond closed at 5.12%, the highest since 2007 (charted above). Why it matters: Interest rates that governments pay on their debt can drive the global economy. When rates are low, countries can spend more freely and fuel economic growth. But when governments pay more to borrow, costs also rise for companies and consumers taking out mortgages or car loans.