The instructor provided an example of the yield curve for U.S. Treasury securities to illustrate the relationship between the interest rates for debt instruments for different maturities, and to highlight the normal relationship between short-term interest rates and long-term interest rates. Normally, for debt instruments issued by the U.S. government: Interest rates for long-term debt instruments are __than interest rates for short-term debt Instruments because moderately lower; short-term debt instruments are exposed to greater interest rate price risk about the same, U.S. Treasury securities are considered risk-free, so it does not matter what the maturity date is (whether a short-term date or a long-term date). slightly lower; short-term debt instruments are exposed to greater Interest rate re-investment risk. moderately higher; long-term debt instruments are exposed to greater interest rate price risk substantially higher; longer-term debt instruments are exposed to greater default risk