In late September of 2008, while the country was struggling with a financial crisis, legendary investor Warren Buffett made an amazing deal with Goldman Sachs. Read about it here in the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122256922970483051.html

1. What exactly did Warren Buffett buy?

2. Why did Goldman, one of the best run banks on Wall Street, give Mr. Buffett such a great deal? To understand more about this, look at interest rates at the time

and in particular, at the shape of the yield curve.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/Historic-Yield-Data-Visualization.aspx

3.Compare Dec 2007 to February 2015.

We currently are experiencing a normal, upward sloping, yield curve. Compare the current yield curve to the December 2007 yield curve. How is it different?

What was happening in December of 2007 in the financial markets?

4. Compare Sep 02 2008 to Oct 02 2008

This shows the before and after effect of WB's deal with Goldman. What do you see in these yield curves? What changed?