[ELI5] what does the yield on the US bonds mean exactly and why is it a concern when they rise?
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The yield on a bond is the return you can expect from owning a bond. A bond is essentially a loan to the issuer, in this case the U.S. government. When the government sells a bond, it is agreeing to make interest payments to the holder of the bond until the bond expires (called maturity). The interest rate for the bond, called the coupon rate, is set when the bond is issued. At maturity, the government will pay the holder a specified amount, called the face value or par value of the bond, and will no longer make interest payments. A bond holder can usually sell a bond to another investor at any time before the bond matures.
Now, the relationship between interest rates, bond prices, and bond yields is counter-intuitive. When interest rates go up, it *lowers* the price someone can get for an existing bond, since buyers can get new bonds with higher rates. Along with this, if bond prices are falling, bond yields will go up, since you can get the same amount of return at a lower initial price.
Ultimately, higher bond yields make bonds more attractive as an investment, which can pull cash from other places like the stock market. This can have the effect of causing the stock market to fall which can have other negative effects on the financial markets and then the larger economy.
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