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.govThe 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.