GOVERNMENT: Stretching Out the Debt
To ease its financial problems, the Treasury announced last week that it was going to try a borrowing technique called advance refunding which it has not used in five years. The Treasury is offering holders of $12.5 billion in World War II bonds which mature between 1967 and 1969 the chance to turn them in for new bonds which will mature in 20 to 38 years. Bait to the bond owners is a 3½% interest rate on the new bonds (v. 2½% on the old ones). Treasury hopes $3 billion to $5 billion of the old bonds will be converted to the new issue. Chief advantage to the Treasury is that the plan will extend the maturity date on the national debt without disturbing the short-term securities market.
Most Popular »
- Why Obama Has to Worry About Polls
- Why Brittany Murphy Is Worth Remembering
- Brazilian Family Concedes Defeat: Sean Goldman Home by Christmas?
- How Panera Bread Defies the Recession
- In Germany, a Disturbing Rise of Right-Wing Violence
- Lindsey Graham: New GOP Maverick in the Senate
- Israel vs. Hizballah: Drumbeats of War
- The Pentagon Prepares for a Missile Attack from 'Iran'
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell
- A Pariah No More: Serbia Bids to Join the E.U.
- How Panera Bread Defies the Recession
- In Germany, a Disturbing Rise of Right-Wing Violence
- Rehabilitating Joseph Stalin
- Lindsey Graham: New GOP Maverick in the Senate
- Holland's Plan to Tax Every Kilometer Driven
- A Pariah No More: Serbia Bids to Join the E.U.
- Brazilian Family Concedes Defeat: Sean Goldman Home by Christmas?
- Domestic Terror Incidents Hit a Peak in 2009
- In Cleveland, Worker Co-Ops Look to a Spanish Model
- Will Your Next Car be Made in India?
Top Stories on TIME.com
Quotes of the Day »
BOB DIETZ, Asia program coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, on the suicide attack on a club for journalists in Pakistan that killed at least four people and injured 17 others
RSS