<p><span>As I have noted in the past, i</span><span>t is hard to overstate the importance of the U.S. Treasury market. U.S. Treasury securities are direct obligations of the U.S. Government issued by the Department of the Treasury. There are several different types of Treasury securities, including U.S. Treasury bills, nominal coupon notes and bonds, Floating Rate Notes, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). The market consists of two components: the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market is where the Treasury Department auctions securities to the public through a competitive bidding process and subsequently issues awarded securities to finance the Federal government. The secondary market is where the other trading of U.S. Treasury securities occurs. The secondary market includes both the “cash market,” for outright purchases and sales of securities, and the repo market, where one participant sells a U.S. Treasury security to another participant, along with a commitment to repurchase the security at a specified price on a specified later date. Treasuries serve as investment instruments and hedging vehicles, as a benchmark for many financial instruments, and as a mechanism for the implementation of monetary policy, among other purposes.</span></p>