
The giant IOU machine
Uncle Sam's piggy bank
Corporate cash and municipal magic
The yield curve and the economic crystal ball
YOUR GOAL
Master of The secret life of the bond market
diego87 The Yield Curve
When short-term treasury yields rise above the long, the inverted curve signals that a recession is coming.

diego87 An inverted yield curve occurs when short-term bonds pay higher interest than long-term ones, often predicting an economic recession.

diego87 The yield curve is a simple graph that plots the interest rates of bonds with different maturity dates.

diego87 Shake the Magic Yield Ball to learn how bonds fund public projects and earn interest.
Recession radar: An inverted yield curve has successfully predicted all ten US recessions since 1955, with only one false alarm.
A graph that plots the interest rates of similar bonds across different maturity dates. In 1986, economist Campbell Harvey demonstrated that an inverted slope on this graph historically foreshadows economic recessions.
What is the nickname for investors who sell bonds to protest government policies they view as inflationary?
If you buy a bond for $1,000 and sell it for $950 before it matures, what have you experienced?
Since 1955, how many US recessions has an inverted yield curve successfully predicted?
What is the mathematical term for the actual annual return an investor gets from a bond?