http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/ Rational Refreshing Reflections on What's Happening Now en-en Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/recent.gif http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/ http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/index.html http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/index.html 20A032.htm 20A032 Bonds  by Jim Davies, 8/11/2020     They differ from stocks. If you buy a share in the stock of a company you may gain well from both dividends and rises in its price, but you are promised nothing else; high risk, potential of high gain. With bonds, you are. Your only risk lies in the reliability of the promise. The bond seller promises to return your money at a certain date, plus interest at a certain rate. If you wish, you can sell the bought bond prior to that date, for whatever it will fetch in the market. Bonds are sold both by companies, and by governments at all levels. Company bonds are honest; the others are not; because their promise is contingent on their de-facto power to steal all the money needcd to pay both interest and returned principal. When selling (issuing) a bond, a company is promising to honor its terms or go out of business; it is placing the buyer alongside the firm's owners. Provided only that it can remain solvent, the bond buyer will be paid. The risk is not zero, but it's as small as can be. Bearer bonds were a useful way to store money while earning interest on it, and doing so without the benefit of government oversight; they were issued without registration of the owner so they were anonymous, rather like a $100 bill except that any value could be named. A single document is so much easier to carry around than a suitcase full of Benjamins. There was no recourse if stolen or counterfeited (again, like Federal Reserve Notes) but they nicely enabled tax-free trading. The Feds hated that and in 1982 made them unobtainable. Come the zero government society, they may well re-appear; but since there will be neither tax nor snoops, it's not clear that they will offer much advantage over registered, more secure kinds of bond. Town, State or Federal government bonds also come with a guarantee, and can reasonably claim that since governments go broke less often than firms, the risk is smaller yet. And in addition, the interest paid is not taxable! That can be a very attractive selling point, especially for a high-income investor who is being taxed at the maximum rate on the "progressive" scale. Still, it's dishonest. If I were to sell you a bond for $95 with a promise to buy it back a year hence for $100 and steal the money to do so, I'd be arrested for theft. It would be a fraudulent, void contract. But that law doesn't apply to governments. They give themselves a break; "no man is above the law" is just not true and never was. It's curious, and sad, that financial advisors never seem to point out this very obvious fact. Municipal bonds are for example often recommended as a valuable part of any portfolio, on account of their high security and tax-free status. Such advisors would not propose buying a bond issued by a Mafia family, even if it offered an even higher rate of return and even though that family had a rich collection of judges in its pocket and was therefore very secure; for the advisor would know (and say) that it was a criminal enterprise. Why the double standard? The two cases are identical; why is one wrong and the other, right? The only answer: government writes the laws and Cosa Nostra doesn't. 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Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A015.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A015.htm Read more about '20A015: A Selective Iconoclast, 4/14/2020 Christopher Hitchens considered ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A014.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A014.htm Read more about '20A014: The Screeching Swede, 4/7/2020 Eco-Nazis' final squeal? ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A013.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A013.htm Read more about '20A013: The Silence of the Beeb, 3/31/2020 The Fourth Estate: just a mouthpiece of the Empire ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A012.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A012.htm Read more about '20A012: Some As to Qs, 3/24/2020 A few loose ends around the bogus crisis ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A011.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A011.htm Read more about '20A011: This Bogus Crisis, 3/17/2020 A frenzy, from the Department of Scary Stories ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A010.htm http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/20A010.htm Read more about '20A010: Why Have Juries?, 3/10/2020 A useful limit, while government survives ' on the Zero Government blog... 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Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1H19.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1H19.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for January - June 2019 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q18.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q18.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for October - December 2018 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q18.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q18.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for July - September 2018 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch2q18.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch2q18.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for April - June 2018 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q18.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q18.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for January - March 2018 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q17.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q17.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for October - December 2017 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q17.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q17.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for July - September 2017 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch2q17.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch2q17.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for April - June 2017 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q17.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q17.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for January - March 2017 ' on the Zero Government blog... 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Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q16.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch1q16.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for January - March 2016 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q15.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch4q15.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for October - December 2015 ' on the Zero Government blog... Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:59:21 -0500 http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q15.htm" http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/"http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/zgb/arch3q15.htm" Read more about 'ZGBlogs for July - September 2015 ' on the Zero Government blog... 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