10-year Treasury yield under Ronald Reagan

What investors earn to lend money to the U.S. government for ten years — the benchmark long-term interest rate.

Over 1981-01-20 to 1989-01-19, measured in Percent:

Term average

10.73 Percent

At the start

13.17 Percent

At the end

9.03 Percent

Change

-4.14 Percent

Low

6.95 Percent (1986-08-29)

High

15.84 Percent (1981-09-30)

Coverage

68% (1995 observations)

Reading this series over a presidential term

A market price set continuously by investors worldwide, usually read as their collective expectation of growth, inflation, and Fed policy, plus a premium for tying money up. Daily data gives a term about a thousand points, so coverage is never the problem here.

A single point on a curve. It carries no information on its own about why the yield moved — the same 4% can mean healthy growth or an inflation scare.

These are the observed values over the window above, and nothing more. This site does not say which direction is better, and none of this is a claim that Ronald Reagan caused the number to move.

What 10-year Treasury yield measures · Ronald Reagan: the whole record · Chart it · Compare with another president · The source at FRED