On the first Friday of September 2026, a stronger-than-expected August employment report reminded markets that the American economy does not always follow the script written for it. Bond yields rose as investors absorbed the news, repricing their assumptions about inflation, growth, and the Federal Reserve's next move. In the long arc of economic cycles, this moment reflects a familiar tension: good news for workers can mean higher costs for borrowers, and resilience in one corner of the economy reshapes expectations across all the others.