Federal Debt Management Trends and Policies

Federal debt management, narrowly defined, concerns Treasury's decisions about sales of Treasury bills, notes and bonds, which affect the term structure of the privately held interest-bearing federal debt. Financial economists have different theories concerning the causes of the term structure of interest rates and the changes in the term structure over the business cycle. The four primary theories are the expectations theory, the risk averse theory, the segmented market theory and the preferred habitat theory. This book provides a broad overview of Treasury debt management and examines changes in debt sales implemented by the Clinton and Bush Administrations.