Bond yields are the returns investors earn from their bond’s interest—and they're a key economic barometer

What are Treasury yields?

Treasury yields are the interest rates that the US government pays to borrow money for different lengths of time. Specifically, Treasury yields are interest rates on US government debt. They reflect economic outlooks and inflation expectations. Learn more about Treasury yields here.

The bond market is where bonds and other debt securities are traded

Bonds are fixed-income investments allowing individuals to lend a specific amount of money to a large entity, like a government or corporation, for a set amount of time in return for interest paid out over the life of the loan. The bond market is widely considered a key economic barometer.

Investors collectively own $28T in US Treasury securities

The 10-year Treasury yield is a central measure of the health of the economy, shaping how much both the government pays on its debt and the cost of borrowing for the private sector. This explainer provides stats and explainers on the important metric.

Investing in bonds comes with a few risks

Think: changes in interest rates that impact the bond’s value, or a bond issuer completely defaulting on a loan. There are steps investors can take to lower their initial and future risk when investing in the bond market, such as checking a company's bond rating before investing.

If the US government paid off its debt, it could disrupt the entire bond market

Treasury bonds are some of the most common bonds for investors, and the majority of the national debt is in bonds.

Companies sometimes issue corporate bonds to raise capital

These bonds offer investors regular interest payments in addition to the return of the principal amount at maturity. They allow companies to raise capital without losing ownership.

Are I-Bonds a good investment?

I-Bonds are savings bonds issued by the US government that can help protect savings from inflation. While that sounds positive, I-Bonds have a few disadvantages, too—for instance, these bonds have to be held for at least a year before you can cash out.

An inverted yield curve has preceded every recession that’s occurred in the last 50 years

Prolonged yield curve inversions can predict recessions, but even brief inversions can cause investors to react with knee-jerk reactions.

Why countries have credit ratings

Sovereign credit ratings work like national credit scores, measuring a country’s ability and willingness to repay its debt. Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch are the major agencies assigning these ratings, which influence borrowing costs and investor confidence.

Visualizing 40 years of interest rates

The history of interest rates are a proxy of macroeconomic conditions, with higher interest rates indicating periods of decline requiring artificial central stimulation. In a series of charts illustrating rates and their background conditions, you can see the movement of the economy over a forty-year period ending in 2020. Dive into the data here.

The Federal Reserve's decisions can impact your money

Car loans, mortgages, business investments—these and more can be drastically impacted by the adjustment of the Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate. Alternatively, savers can earn higher, low-risk yields on their savings when the Fed’s target rate is higher.

Some economists argue the national debt is not a critical concern

The US has the largest national debt and one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios. These vitals have long been considered a sign of poor fiscal health, but economists are beginning to shift their attention to interest rates to evaluate national debt.

The Dow remains a shorthand for America’s economic health

For over a century, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been one of the most closely watched market barometers. Its rises and falls dominate headlines and politics, shaping how Americans perceive the strength of their economy.

The S&P 500 yields a roughly 10.5% average annual return

Tthe factors that go into that calculation are multifaceted—from how inflation impacts it to the stocks themselves. During periods of high inflation, stock performance can be stunted by investor concerns, for instance. The average return also varies based on whether dividends are included.

How the World Bank's pandemic bonds were triggered during COVID-19

In 2017, the World Bank raised a chunk of emergency funds through bonds to help developing countries cover funds in the event of a pandemic. Had no pandemic occurred, investors would have received returns of 6% to 11%. But the global pandemic meant they lost all their money.

Many economists see Black Friday as a litmus test for consumer confidence

Some investors and analysts look at Black Friday’s sales numbers as a way to gauge the overall health of the retail industry—and consumer confidence at large. However, others don’t believe Black Friday results have a particularly significant impact on markets, arguing that the figures only cause short-term gains or losses.

What something costs is reflective of a balance in the market determined by the amount of demand relative to the supply of goods and services

Because economies are complex systems, a wide variety of issues influence this balance—including some things generally considered to be positive, like rising wages.

Beyond oil, the Iran war is pushing up costs on fertilizer, prescriptions, and mortgages, too

Gas is up 27% since fighting began, but the Strait of Hormuz also carries a third of the world's fertilizer, petrochemicals used in generic drugs, and helium for semiconductor manufacturing. Mortgage rates have climbed back above 6.4%, and economists warn $130 oil could tip the U.S. into recession.

The Yale model of investment allocation, explained

College endowment managers long held to the traditional allocation of 60% domestic stocks and 40% bonds. But Yale’s David Swensen developed a new approach: deprioritizing low-risk fixed income and liquid assets in favor of alternative investments to leverage endowments' long-term investment horizons and capture the “liquidity premium.”

About 88% of all homebuyers feel their home is a good investment

According to data from 2022, 50% of homeowners felt their home was a better investment than stocks. The financial benefits of homeownership are significant: From avoiding rising rents to tax advantages, this interactive article outlines several.

Compound interest has been called the eighth wonder of the world

That's because it has the near-magical quality of helping financial investments grow exponentially. Rather than accruing a standard lump of simple interest annually, compound interest takes the previous year’s yield and reinvests it as part of the principal.

League tables show the number of deals top investment banks do in a time period

These tables provide a visual to help keep track of the leading companies in investment banking. Companies such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs typically sit up top.

Bank runs, explained

A major feature of the modern financial system is trust: if an institution loses it, customers will quickly withdraw deposits and stockholders will sell their shares. This digestible animated video looks into the nature and history of bank runs and...

An updated, comprehensive tracker of global inflation

This tracker provides a visual narrative of inflation rates, central bank policies, consumer price breakouts, and more from nations across the globe.

BNPL may be adding a layer of debt that doesn't show up in economic data

Given somewhat limited regulation in the BNPL space, data about its usage is limited—many BNPL firms have resisted sharing information about user purchases, finances, and more thus far. As more people begin using buy now, pay later services, experts are concerned about whether BNPL is adding a new layer of "hidden leverage" to the economy.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Scientists have struggled to pin down Ebola's natural reservoir species for decades, but the available evidence suggests that it's very likely fruit and insect-eating bats found in Africa.