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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Behold The Next Conspiracy Theory

Behold The Next Conspiracy Theory

by John Cole|  July 14, 20111:31 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Clown Shoes

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You just know that the conspiracy nuts are going to freak about this:

Starting in January, you will no longer be able to go to your bank and buy savings bonds. Get ready to hear lots of complaints from unhappy senior citizens, who are especially fond of buying the bonds as gifts for their grandchildren.
www.treasurydirect.gov

The Bureau of the Public Debt, the arm of the United States Treasury that oversees the sale and redemption of bonds and other government securities, is scrapping paper savings bonds. You’ll still be able to buy them in an electronic version, as you can now, via the bureau’s Web-based TreasuryDirect purchasing system. But you won’t get an actual paper bond, suitable for tucking inside a birthday card. You can, however, download a “gift certificate” from the TreasuryDirect Web site, indicating the amount of the bond you have purchased, and for what occasion.

Van Zeck, the public debt commissioner, said in a prepared statement that bonds aren’t going away, though he added, “It’s time for us to take a 1935 model and make it a 21st century investment tool.” (For next year, at least, the government will still issue paper bonds if you buy them with your federal income tax refund.)

Speaking of nuts, it seems like Ron Paul is itching for default.

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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Poopyman

    July 14, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Keep government out of our Savings Bonds!

  2. 2.

    Poopyman

    July 14, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    Speaking of nuts, it seems like Ron Paul is itching for default.

    Nobody cares what Ron Paul thinks. Nobody of importance, and not enough unimportant ones.

    And no, the media don’t qualify as important.

  3. 3.

    dpcap

    July 14, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Read the comments to see some Paulbots defending him as usual.

  4. 4.

    capt

    July 14, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    Ron who? You mean that crazy guy from down in Texas?

    lol

  5. 5.

    Jay in Oregon

    July 14, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    I think John hit the nail on the head with his last post on the debt ceiling:

    “HAHAHAHA- I’ll get the future family budget in line, I’ll rip up all my old bills and tell people I owe money to fuck off! And then I just won’t spend any money on anything, not rent, food, utilities for a couple years and everything will be fixed WOO FISCAL CONSERVATISM! Yeah! That’s the ticket!”

  6. 6.

    mellowjohn

    July 14, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    “…Ron Paul thinks.”??? who knew?

  7. 7.

    Han's Solo

    July 14, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    Speaking of nuts, it seems like Ron Paul is itching for default.

    Are you sure it isn’t just crabs?

    I’m not sure how much of a controversy the bonds issue will be. Aren’t the rubes most susceptible to conspiracies already being told by their various “leaders” to buy gold, gold, gold?

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    July 14, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    Damn, you can buy the paper for 50% of the face value. Online you pay full face value.

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    July 14, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Ron Paul can be once was kinda likeable in that harmless goofy relative way, but he’s become simply insufferable with his giant collection of hobby horses. Yesterday it was the goddamn gold obsession…again.

    “Do you think gold is money?” Paul asked. Bernanke paused for a long moment before replying “No, it’s a precious metal,” then described gold as an asset, comparing it to a treasury bill. Paul continued to press Bernanke, asking why banks central banks hold gold.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/180213/20110714/ron-paul-bernanke-ron-paul-gold-ron-paul-federal-reserve-bernanke-hearing-ron-paul-president.htm

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    July 14, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    My main concern is that my laptop refuses to play Soul Surfing off my fatboy slim cd. My other concern is that my oven is not able to get warm enough to cook and I still have no sink. Plus, LESS THAN 2 HRS TO KITTEH! These idjits, I refuse to care about.

  11. 11.

    Devon

    July 14, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY GET RID OF THAT FREAKING ‘SHE LOVES HER VEGGIES’ AD WITH THE GIRL MOUTHING THE CUCUMBER. I HATE IT!!!!!

    Love, Me

  12. 12.

    Bruce S

    July 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    Does this mean that the Treasury is abandoning the Paper Standard?

    Time to suit up in the camouflage…pretty soon our precious currency is going to be reduced to nothing but hand signals from Ben Bernanke.

    Kidding aside, this doesn’t sound like a very smart thing to do, given the relative internet literacy of the demographic that most likely buys most of these things. Some of these folks are already rattled enough.

  13. 13.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    July 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    Hooray for the KITTEH!

  14. 14.

    Todd

    July 14, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    Is there a business in attempting to sell savings bonds on behalf of senior citizens and printing the gift certificates for them? Or is that somehow illegal? Why wouldn’t banks just do that instead?

    I’m not going to be a conspiracy theorist, but I will say this is somewhat ageist and they are walking right into the conspiracy theory. They should really just have banks conduct a service that does essentially the same thing but with the new gcs instead of the actual bonds.

  15. 15.

    Napoleon

    July 14, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    Funny.

    I am an attorney who does a lot of bank work. I had attended a continuing legal education back in 2000 (it was actually in WDC a few days after the Bush/Gore deadlock election took place) and one of the panels discussed how they could make the entire check payment system entirely paperless (the main speaker on this point was someone from the Fed) but that they were having lawmakers and others have a hard time going along with it because they just knew grandma was going to freak out when she did not get a check back with a signature on the back with some stamps. So the Fed was wasting a ton of money maintaining all the Fed branches they do and flying checks around every night (seriously, that is what they were doing, having planes fly the checks all over the country every business night).

  16. 16.

    NonyNony

    July 14, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    I think that this is going to kill this particular use for savings bonds:

    Get ready to hear lots of complaints from unhappy senior citizens, who are especially fond of buying the bonds as gifts for their grandchildren.

    My parents and my wife’s parents send my kid savings bonds for birthdays/christmases. They could send a check, but they send a savings bond so they know he can’t spend it until he’s in college. If they can’t get the paper bond from the bank they’ll probably just write a check instead.

    Until those go away. Then I dunno what the grandparents will do.

  17. 17.

    scav

    July 14, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    Devon, Breathe. I think you’ll have better luck single-handedly fixing the deficit than getting rid of any specific ad. I seem to remember there was a three-armed meat-entwined busty woman that is still seared into the retinas of many here (I admit to blocking everything so am uncouth but unscathed).

  18. 18.

    The Other Chuck

    July 14, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    @Todd:

    There’s a few businesses that do that for stock certificates, such as OneShare and ShareInAFrame.com. Some of them are really quite pretty. Seniors are still not going to appreciate having to pay extra bucks for the paper though.

  19. 19.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    July 14, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Ruemara’s KITTEH! has a more well-reasoned position on debt default than Ron Paul does.

    Also, want KITTEH!

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    July 14, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    Congrats on KITTEH! to ruemara.

    I think we should switch to the KITTEH standard ’cause it’s cuter.

  21. 21.

    Southern Beale

    July 14, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    And from that Ron Paul link, which is about the debt ceiling and the Moody’s rating, comes this:

    “We play along with this game with Social Security. We know it is insolvent….”

    Wait what? We’re talking about the debt ceiling and now you’re talking about Social Security? Completely different topics, no?

  22. 22.

    pamelabrown

    July 14, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    I’m a “grandma” who buys savings bond for my one (and probably only) grandchild and my mother does the same. I think it’s high time to cut out the bankstas and go directly to the source. If “grandma” truly wants to buy those savings bond then someone in the family will help her print out a “certificate”.

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 14, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    Ron Paul just does not get what “money” is a substitute for.

    He needs to read Adam Smith.

  24. 24.

    twiffer

    July 14, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    i used to get savings bonds from my great-grandfather. as well as proof sets from the mint.

    thanks whatever gods you will no children will ever have to get a savings bond for christmas again.

  25. 25.

    Dennis SGMM

    July 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    @Southern Beale

    Conflating the still-solvent Social Security trust fund with the deficit and thereby identifying it as a source of our current woes is of a piece with the Republicans ongoing efforts to transfer the trust fund to Wall Street. Those boys want that chunk of cash like Hedley Lamarr wanted Rock Ridge.

  26. 26.

    SenyorDave

    July 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    The Obama death panels will solve this problem. There won’t be any seniors to complain.

  27. 27.

    chopper

    July 14, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    “Do you think gold is money?” Paul asked.

    say there, ronno, when was the last time you whipped out the scale and carved off a hunk o gold to buy a pack of smokes at the 7-11?

    his bit about ‘why not diamonds?’ just goes to show what a complete fucking moron he is. diamonds would be a terrible fucking asset for a central bank to hold huge amounts of. not that gold is way better, but at least it’s fucking fungible and the price isn’t controlled by one company. and you can’t create reasonable amounts of the shit in a university lab.

  28. 28.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 14, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    @NonyNony: I’m getting ready to cash in bonds — sent by Grandma, one for each birthday, Christmas, and school-year start — for a son born in 1989, The earlier ones, anyways.

    She always told him “You will turn these back into ‘real money’ when the time comes for you to study abroad”.

    The kid’s 22, and off to Switzerland. It’ll be sad to see them, and him, and this tradition go.

  29. 29.

    daveNYC

    July 14, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    The mouth-breathers wouldn’t know this, of course, but corporations stopped issuing stock certificates and physical bonds a long time ago.

    Although you can get the stock certificate printed out and sent to you if you really want. Costs an arm and a leg though (considering that all you get is a piece of paper).

  30. 30.

    Xenos

    July 14, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    @Southern Beale: Completely different topics? Not to a conspiracy theoritician. It (whatever ‘it’ is, I guess — everything?) is all tied together.

    Even if they do not believe in an omnipotent god meddling around in 7 billion lives they believe in a universe where people can rig everything.

  31. 31.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    July 14, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Some of these folks are already rattled enough.

    So I guess this means that the plan to replace paper savings bond certificates with “Obama Death Panel Tickets – hahahaha, just kidding folks, no really.” on April 1st of next year is going to go back on the shelf, huh?

  32. 32.

    bkny

    July 14, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    ya know, this is so fucking stupid that i’m sure it will circulate as some huge conspiracy. otoh, is it too much to ask of the treasury dept to design and provide some online form where the appropriate info could be inserted and then mailed to/downloaded by the recipient. they could even design docs in color! and make them all fancy schmancy and official looking to satisfy gramps.

  33. 33.

    catclub

    July 14, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    Did anyone see the ‘greatest scam ever’ link at Yglesias?

    You can buy dollar coins in bulk for face value from the mint and they will ship them for free. Then deposit them at your bank and get the mileage points on your credit card.

    Now the mint limits you to $1000 every ten days or so.

  34. 34.

    daveNYC

    July 14, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    “We play along with this game with Social Security. We know it is insolvent. We know that if it were an insurance company, it would be in big trouble,” he said. “It is true that this rating will have an effect, but it is a short-term effect. Ultimately, the fundamentals show this country is bankrupt.”

    “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
    “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
    “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”

  35. 35.

    Don

    July 14, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    “Do you think gold is money?” Paul asked.
    say there, ronno, when was the last time you whipped out the scale and carved off a hunk o gold to buy a pack of smokes at the 7-11?

    If you want to shave a year off your life from the damage weapons-grade idiocy can cause, go listen to the Planet Money episode about when they send someone to the PorcFest. They’re too kind to point out how painfully ignorant these bozos are about the meaning of money and the downsides of a gold-based currency, but they don’t shy about showing what a massive PITA it is not having a central currency.

    If you can resist kicking your mp3 player/computer over it’s a good listen.

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    July 14, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    @NonyNony – on the other hand, grandparents that do that have to realize that a lot of those bonds never get cashed, get lost and whatnot, or never redeemed. A high percentage of savings bonds could be written off as lost property.

  37. 37.

    Suffern ACE

    July 14, 2011 at 3:05 pm

    @35 Dave – well thank god it isn’t an insurance company then.

  38. 38.

    The Other Chuck

    July 14, 2011 at 3:09 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    Savings bonds aren’t bearer instruments: the bank has a record of the bond in your name. One only need go to the bank, show ID, and cash out their bond.

    Gramps just likes to give bonds as gifts with a face value that won’t pay for a night at the movies; the main reason they’re lost is that the recipient didn’t think it worth the bother to keep track of.

  39. 39.

    daverave

    July 14, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    I’ve recently cashed in a few bonds we got at my wedding 30 years ago. Who knew $100 would turn into $330, although, given inflation, it’s probably pretty close to a wash. Still, a party was had, thanks Gramps!

  40. 40.

    Jay in Oregon

    July 14, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    They’re too kind to point out how painfully ignorant these bozos are about the meaning of money and the downsides of a gold-based currency, but they don’t shy about showing what a massive PITA it is not having a central currency.

    Has any one of these brain trusts explains what happens if I don’t WANT to accept chickens or WoW gold or Bitcoins as currency? Or if I only want to play my debts with diamonds or Second Life dollars?

  41. 41.

    mm

    July 14, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    I remember as a kid going with my mother to the bank to buy a savings bond. They took her money and had a savings bond blank, put it in the typewriter and typed in the name of the recipient and we walked out with it all ready to give as a gift.

    Five years ago I tried to buy a savings bond for a wedding present where I new the groom was a spendthrift. They couldn’t hand me a bond at the bank. It had to be mailed from the Treasury.

    @34 dollar coins: I buy them and spend them. You agree when you buy them that you can’t put them right back into the bank. They’re to get them into circulation and maybe help the decicit because if we could get rid of $1 and $5 bills we’d save a helluva lot of money. They last 12-18 months and a coin lasts for 50 years.

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