Additionally why are they considered safer than stocks.
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When the government needs to borrow money, for example if they want to build a bridge to improve the economy so they can collect more taxes, they can not just go to a bank and take out a loan. No bank in the world have enough cash on hand to bankroll a government. So instead what the government is doing is to split up the big loan into many smaller loans and then invite every banker and investor to place bids on these loans in a large auction. These are called government bonds. But if you buy a bond at an auction that does not mean that you need to keep on to that until it is due, you can sell it to anyone else who wants to take over the loan for you. So in addition to the regular government auctions of new bonds there are continuous private markets where the bonds are being sold and bought all the time.
Comparing it to stocks they are much safer. If a company goes bankrupt then the stocks are worthless. And companies go bankrupt all the time. However countries generally do not go bankrupt. Even when countries do go bankrupt they usually end up paying the bonds eventually anyway. Most of the government bonds are owned by their own population, primarily middle class citizens own bonds indirectly through bank deposits, insurance, union savings, pensions, collage funds, etc. So it is extremely rare to lose money on government bonds. And if you do then you usually have much bigger issues to worry about then your savings.
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