Government Bond 10Y | Notes
A government bond is a security issued by a national government denominated in the country's own currency. The most common process of issuing bonds is through underwriting. In underwriting, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy an entire issue of bonds from an issuer and re-sell them to investors. The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. However government bonds are instead typically auctioned. Bonds issued by national governments in foreign currencies are normally referred to as sovereign bonds. The first ever government bond was issued by the English government in 1693 to raise money to fund a war against France. In the past, Government bonds were usually referred to as risk-free bonds, because governments could easily devaluate their currencies or raise taxes to redeem the bond at maturity. However, the recent downgrade of the United States debt rating and the on-going sovereign debt crisis in the European Union has cast serious doubts into those risk-free assumptions. Moreover, unless governments issue inflation-indexed bonds, there is inflation risk, in that the principal repaid at maturity will have less purchasing power than anticipated if the inflation outturn is higher than expected.