Money & Economics

I thought this was an interesting headline this morning:
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In other words, holiday sales were down, but we'll say they were up to continue the constant deception about everything.
So this is my take on Inflation. The money I have tied up in CDs at 5% or even my savings account making 3.3% is not affected by Inflation as long as I don't use it to purchase anything. If I just ride the storm out then I will come out on the positive side when Inflation goes away...
 
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Did you buy the bonds in 2002? If so, they have another 10 years left before their 30 year final maturity and forced redemption. The 20 year number is when EE bonds purchased after June 2003 reach "original maturity", i.e. double their purchase price. Original maturity for bonds purchased in 2002 was 17 years. Here's what the treasury calculator says for a bond purchased in 12/02:

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Sorry. That was a typo. They were of the 30 year variety.
 
Sorry. That was a typo. They were of the 30 year variety.
OK, then I have a totally relevant story to tell, with apologies for boring those who don't engage in savings bonds. About 5 or 6 years ago, someone I know was sitting on some EE bonds that matured in what I'll call year 1. During year 2, he found out about the tax due even though you don't have the money thing, and followed the law by amending his year 1 return and paying the tax due. He also took the bonds to his bank and cashed them out. At the end of year 2, the bank sent him a 1099-INT showing they paid the interest during year 2. Fast forward a few years, and my friend gets a notice from the IRS that he didn't report the year 2 savings bond income, they changed his return and he owes a big tax payment plus penalty and interest. Pointing out to the IRS that he had already properly paid the tax, quoting the applicable statue, and pointing out their own regulations fell on deaf ears. The obvious solution could have been to amend the year 1 and year 2 returns to make the IRS bots happy, but by this time the window to amend year 1 had expired. At that point the only remaining recourse was to sue the IRS. Catch-22, the law says you can't sue them unless you first pay their judgement. So at this point he has paid the taxes twice and has initiated a suit.

As bad luck would have it, I have fallen into the same darn trap this year. I had some EE bonds mature in October and went to the bank to cash them out. Bank said they don't cash savings bonds any more and you have to send them in to the treasury dept. Turns out the law requiring banks to deal in savings bonds was changed a few years ago and it's now optional. I packaged up the bonds and sent them to the treasury in mid-October, which generated a fairly quick response that they were received and can take up to 13 weeks to process, and don't even think about contacting them until 13 weeks have passed. Since they haven't been processed yet I figure they won't be this year, putting me in the same dang position of bonds maturing in one year and cashed out in another year, not to mention I'm losing a few months' worth of interest. Will they retroactively change the 1099-INT for 2022? Will they say it's 2023 income even though their own rules say otherwise? My plan now is to follow whatever they do with the 1099-INTs. The IRS doesn't seem to know what their own rules are, and/or give a flip about following them.
 
I feel your pain, as an x self employed small business owner of 35 yrs. I had many battles with the IRS through my accountant. She finally retired early due to all the stupid coming out of the IRS that continuously caused her heartburn. And the State of Indiana is another whole story.

Anytime some politician starts flapping their lips about "all they have done for small businesses" I get irate. They do nothing but put more burden on them.
In 35 yrs I never once saw anything come down the pike that was "better" for small businesses.
 
How to wipe out the national debt. Hire 85,000 IRS agent to confiscate all the gold and silver held by
the American public. They could not take all the silver coins back in 1934, as we would have no coinage! Now that "money"
is base metal, silver will be in the target too.

The current US Government's "official" price of gold is $44.22 not the current spot price!
That 1/10 oz. $5. gold coin that one bought at the current price of $230 (Ebay 12/27/22) is still only $5 face in "new money".
Can they do it? They have done it before!!

 
How to wipe out the national debt. Hire 85,000 IRS agent to confiscate all the gold and silver held by
the American public. They could not take all the silver coins back in 1934, as we would have no coinage! Now that "money"
is base metal, silver will be in the target too.

The current US Government's "official" price of gold is $44.22 not the current spot price!
That 1/10 oz. $5. gold coin that one bought at the current price of $230 (Ebay 12/27/22) is still only $5 face in "new money".
Can they do it? They have done it before!!


I skimmed the article and just confirmed what I already knew. FDR was a crook and shitty prez and the gubermint cannot be trusted.
 
OK, then I have a totally relevant story to tell, with apologies for boring those who don't engage in savings bonds. About 5 or 6 years ago, someone I know was sitting on some EE bonds that matured in what I'll call year 1. During year 2, he found out about the tax due even though you don't have the money thing, and followed the law by amending his year 1 return and paying the tax due. He also took the bonds to his bank and cashed them out. At the end of year 2, the bank sent him a 1099-INT showing they paid the interest during year 2. Fast forward a few years, and my friend gets a notice from the IRS that he didn't report the year 2 savings bond income, they changed his return and he owes a big tax payment plus penalty and interest. Pointing out to the IRS that he had already properly paid the tax, quoting the applicable statue, and pointing out their own regulations fell on deaf ears. The obvious solution could have been to amend the year 1 and year 2 returns to make the IRS bots happy, but by this time the window to amend year 1 had expired. At that point the only remaining recourse was to sue the IRS. Catch-22, the law says you can't sue them unless you first pay their judgement. So at this point he has paid the taxes twice and has initiated a suit.

As bad luck would have it, I have fallen into the same darn trap this year. I had some EE bonds mature in October and went to the bank to cash them out. Bank said they don't cash savings bonds any more and you have to send them in to the treasury dept. Turns out the law requiring banks to deal in savings bonds was changed a few years ago and it's now optional. I packaged up the bonds and sent them to the treasury in mid-October, which generated a fairly quick response that they were received and can take up to 13 weeks to process, and don't even think about contacting them until 13 weeks have passed. Since they haven't been processed yet I figure they won't be this year, putting me in the same dang position of bonds maturing in one year and cashed out in another year, not to mention I'm losing a few months' worth of interest. Will they retroactively change the 1099-INT for 2022? Will they say it's 2023 income even though their own rules say otherwise? My plan now is to follow whatever they do with the 1099-INTs. The IRS doesn't seem to know what their own rules are, and/or give a flip about following them.

Holy Crap Tigerwillow. I guess I accidentally got lucky. My bank (Chase) cashed my EE bonds for me in the first week of December. If they wouldn't have, I'd have been in the same boat as you. Please keep was informed how this turns out for you.
 
I thought I'd post the message about my bank not cashing savings bonds, only to see that they are cashing them again @#%$#! I had to go to the wayback machine to get the old notice. Looks like I'm stepping into every pile of doo-doo that I can find!
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This is the Broker my Dad used, he never paid any taxes for the dividends he received. You do have to report them to the IRS but these type of muni bonds are tax free...Only thing is a lot of them get recalled before maturity date which you get your money back in which he just bought more bonds with. You can cash out your bonds, they are sellable, sometimes you make money, other times you lose. Best time to make money is when the Stock Market is down, this is when everyone runs to buy bonds...

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Best way to ride this wave is to be self-employed - be your own entrepreneur, the only question remains, in what exactly?
This is true, we are in the 9% tax bracket because of me being self-employed which saves us a couple of thousand each year in taxes. Now that the wife is retired, I assume that will change, we will see after next year...she just retired a few months ago...
 
I sure miss Trump Years...

2022 Close...
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CBDCs: Digital Wolves In Sheep's Clothing
 
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Flashing Red Alert: Near Record Surge In Credit Card Debt Just As Rates Hit All Time High


Another month, another glaring reminder that most US consumer spending is funded by credit cards.

The latest consumer credit report was published by the Fed today at 3pm and it showed that in November, total credit increased by $27.962BN to $4.757 trillion, above the $25BN consensus estimate, and a number which would have been bigger than last month's pre-revision increase of $27.1BN, had it not been revised modestly higher to $29.12BN.

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Flashing Red Alert: Near Record Surge In Credit Card Debt Just As Rates Hit All Time High


Another month, another glaring reminder that most US consumer spending is funded by credit cards.

The latest consumer credit report was published by the Fed today at 3pm and it showed that in November, total credit increased by $27.962BN to $4.757 trillion, above the $25BN consensus estimate, and a number which would have been bigger than last month's pre-revision increase of $27.1BN, had it not been revised modestly higher to $29.12BN.

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People are just doing the same thing that the present administration is doing, racking up Huge Debt...so thankful my wife and I are Debt Free...that is we owe no lenders or banks anything, everything is paid off...