At any given time, how would the yield curve facing a AAA-rated company compare with the yield curve for U.S. Treasury securities? At any given tune, how would the yield curve facing a BB-rated company compare with the yield curve for U.S. Treasury securities?

Sam Strother and Shawna Tibbs are vice presidents of Mutual of Seattle Insurance Company and codirectors of the company’s pension fund management division. An important new client, the North-Western Municipal Alliance, has requested that Mutual of Seattle present an investment seminar to the mayors of the represented cities, and Strother and Tibbs, who will make the actual presentation, have asked you to help them by answering the following questions. Because the Boeing Company operates in one of the league’s cities, you are to work Boeing into the presentation.