when the u s government decides to borrow funds it issues debt instruments through the u s treasury 
while bonds are a generic name for debt securities treasury bonds or t bonds refer specifically to u s government bonds with maturities of 20 to 30 years u s government obligations with maturities above a year and up to 10 years are known as treasury notes treasury bills or t bills are treasury obligations maturing within a year treasury yields are inversely related to treasury prices each treasury debt maturity trades at its own yield an expression of price the u s treasury publishes the yields of all treasury maturities daily on its website 