The next time you drive on a smoothly paved highway, borrow a new DVD from your library, see an office park rising up in your neighborhood or hear of a factory expansion that’s creating new jobs, consider the role of the U.S. bond market. Even bigger than the stock market, the largest securities market in the world plays a vast and vital role on the global stage, in the U.S. economy, and the daily life of every American.

The bond market provides local, state and federal governments, and private enterprises the funds needed to get development and long-term infrastructure projects off the ground. Before people are hired, earth moved, concrete poured, or products rolled off the factory floor, capital needed for the work is in place. Chances are bond issues help raise the funds to get started on projects that help maintain our quality of life, well-being and U.S. competiveness.

The issuance and purchase of bonds help lower costs of infrastructure renovation and replacement for public works, as well as for new and expanding businesses. Among many examples, bonds help build bridges, roads, transportation systems, power plants that light and heat our homes, reservoirs and pipes that bring us water, sewer systems and factories that produce products fundamental to our daily lives. Without bonds to finance these projects in a timely way, these systems would erode and break down.

In addition to financing long-term infrastructure projects, bonds help governments manage the ebb of its cash flow, passing savings onto taxpayers who help the government pay for needed services, such as those provided by military, police, hospital staff, school teachers, and others.