Read the three extracts from newspaper articles below, and answer these questions.
1 What are the three classes of bonds mentioned?
2 What, according to the journalists and the experts quoted, is happening that makes each type of bond a good investment opportunity?
3 Why is the government buying back billions of pounds worth of bonds?
4 What kind of companies issue high-yield bonds?
What is the risk involved with buying high-yield bonds, and how can it be reduced?
Ex.6 Find words in the articles that mean the following:
1 rose quickly
2 to revive or stimulate something
3 a standard used when comparing other things
4 a period when the economy is contracting (three different words)
5 an improvement or increase in prices
6 failing to repay a loan
7 another word for going bankrupt
Ex.7 Discussion
• What has happened to bond prices since the predictions on page 84 were made during the recession in 2008/9? Were the journalists and experts correct?
Ex.8- 1 Text- Rush to buy government bonds
UK government bonds soared for a second day yesterday after the Bank of England unveiled plans to buy billions of pounds of assets to kickstart the economy. Fund managers and speculators rushed to buy government bonds, known as gilts, driving up prices. Benchmark 10-year gilt prices saw their biggest one-day jump in 17 years yesterday.
The central bank will create new money to buy £7 5 bn of assets, mainly gilts, at a series of auctions over the next three months. Another £75bn could follow. Many economists believe the unprecedented measures should be enough eventually to lift the economy out of its worst slump since the 1930s.
John Wraith of RBC Capital Markets expects the rally in the gilt market to continue for some time. 'A lot of people will now want to own gilts on the assumption that prices will keep on rising,' he said.