Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Interest rates
What interest rate does a 3-month Treasury bill pay?
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The 3-month Treasury bill rate averaged 4.05% a year in October 2026, up from 3.82% in October 2025. It moves closely with the Federal Reserve's policy rate. It peaked at 16.3% in May 1981, and was near zero in the late 1930s, from 2009 to 2015 and in 2020 and 2021. Rates are monthly averages of the rate bills traded at, on a discount basis, back to 1934.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates (monthly averages) (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026
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