Understanding treasury yields

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- ABC57's Jordan Tolbert spoke with Chen Wang, PhD, assistant professor of finance at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, to find out what treasury yields reveal about the economy.

"When the federal government spends more than it collects in taxes, it will have to borrow from the public. It borrows by issuing treasury bonds to investors, and the treasury yields are essentially the interest rate the federal government pays the holders or investors. It is also the return investors expect to earn from those bonds," said Wang.