Talk:United States Treasury security

message: So what is the total debt held in treasury bonds, and by foreigners? Some number here would be nice. The external chart listing
foreign holders lists all these different maturity dates- only last one is effective?, but total debt seems way too low (2.4 trillion)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.251.11.1 (talk) 23:37, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Keep in mind, the majority of the debt is not held by foreign treasuries.  Individuals, both foreign and domestic, corporations and even U.S. government agencies hold an enormous amount of the debt, but they are either domestic, and therefore don't qualify for the chart, or hold too little to appear on the chart. --ShadowRangerRIT (talk) 16:23, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Total Debt 

message: The way treasury direct is mentioned in this section is too like an advertisment for comfort. Howdoesthiswo 21:01, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Treasury bill 

message: On newspaper, for example, a treasury note will mature on Nov 08.
What does this mean? It will mature on November 1st, 2008 or on November 30th, 2008? Thanks. Jackzhp 19:21, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Maturity 

message: This is a question requesting an answer, please. 
I need to know if Treasury bonds purchased in 1880 would still be negotiable today. If so, when did they stop interst bearing.  For instance a $1,000. treasury bond purchased in 1880.  What would it be worth if presented for payment today?  And is that possible?  I have none.  This information is for a book of fiction I am working writing.
Thank you.
kelkraf@earthlink.net
:I think you need to find a good history or reference work that covers this topic.  I note however, that the Fed was only just coming together in the early 1900s.  It sounds unlikely that you would have anything resembling a normal T-Bond from 1880, although I think it very likely that the government issued a variety of debt instruments prior to 1900.  Beyond that, T-Bonds stop paying interest when they reach maturity.  The bond would have had physical coupons attached to it, which would have normally been redeemed to collect the interest payments.  The bond itself should still be worth the original principal or par value, (say $10,000), and the coupons would be worth the semi-annual interest payments, if they were present.  So the ancient bond would not have appreciated to some astronomical value.  Its value would have maxed out at maturity, and has remained the same since, except, perhaps, for it's value to collectors.--Fish-man 14:31, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Historical Treasury Bonds

message: What does it mean that, when the Fed re-introduced the 30-year bond, there was a higher-than-expected demand from foreign investors?
Does it mean that foreign investors have more confidence in national security here--i.e. they have no doubts that the US will still be around in 30 years?  Or do investors assume that all governments will continue to exist in some form, in which case this high demand reflects simply the expectation of a higher interest rate than EU or ASEAN countries offer?
--I.B.
iybet@hotmail.com
:The all basis of bond trading is that US will never default.There may be higher rates of return elsewhere but the surity that the US will not default takes all investors to the US
::The main risk is not default but devaluation of the currency which is also under control of the U.S. government. The Federal Reserve System is supposedly independent (but of course only until Congress amends the Federal Reserve Act accordingly) but they have a dual mandate which makes it unclear how much inflation they may create in an attempt to create employment. MMMMM742 (talk) 18:46, 1 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: 30-year Bond

message: The HH bonds are no longer available per the trasury's website.
:Yes, breaking news in govies!  Who would have thought.  I have poked in a change for this. --Fish-man 16:20, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Update on HH bonds 

message: I hope this isn't too pedantic, but I added a cleanup tag to the Treasury note section because I,
as a non-expert in Treasury matters, could not understand it at first. I added my concerns in these html comments:
:explain the calculation here to a non-technical reader; a par value price of 95:7 is 10 times (95 plus 7/32) which is 10 * 95.21875 which is 952.1875; are prices rounded? is : needed to distinguish from decimal point?
Also, Bloomberg and Marketwatch gives T-note prices in number-fraction format, eg. 99 5/8 and 99-25/32 - I could not find any quotes using decimal points. -213.219.161.27 14:50, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I added some more documentation with addition so that people can calculate the decimal price in the cases where + and the third digit is used.  Riskglossary.com is a great resource for this kind of stuff, and they actually state the the decimal is sometimes substituted for the - or : (I've personally never seen the : myself). --Thesilence 18:02, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  explain for non-technical readers? 

message: My Question is, how do we identify whether the security is T-Bill or a normal Bond by looking into Security Description?
Is it like, if security is having zero copoun, it means its T-Bill? 
If any one has answer to this, pls mail me on [e-mail address removed to divert spam]
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.193.160.8 (talk) 05:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  TBill - Bond 

message: Would it be relevant to include who is depicted on the different denominations of bonds here? This page has the information for I Bonds but there's no similar page for EE bonds. —Scott5114↗ 21:38, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  People pictured on the bonds 

message: Does anyone know why Treasurys are priced in 32nds and the history behind using 32nds?
Thank you, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.27.111.132 (talk) 16:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pricing 

message: The description of why 30 Year bonds were dropped in the 90's (used surplus), makes a lot of sense.  However, with significant increases in the U.S. debit, I don't see why T-Bond (30 year) rates have not gone higher. The 90's rates were 8+%, and the 2006+ rates are under 5%.
The discussion indicates "opportunity cost" ... but I'm not sure why this applies. I can understand it if foreign interests are bidding on these and keeping the interest down as a result of high demand (or more deliberate intention; one can envision a country with a massive trade surplus investing much of that in long term notes of the country with the deficit as a matter of agreement or appeasment.) 
69.21.251.165 15:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interest rate on T Bonds 

message: Errr, am I to assume the author thinks that there is only one country that issues Treasury Securities? (unsigned)
:Agree with complaint about US-centred article. Canada also issues at least one of these types of securities. Since the article isn't "Treasury Securities of the United States", it should be expanded to reflect a world-view. --RealGrouchy 21:54, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I added a GLOBALIZE tag to the article.  Article seems overly US-centric without, in many cases, making the US-centric point-of-view explicit.  In other cases, the article specifies explicitly US-oriented information with no global view as to what a treasury security or treasury bond or whatever might mean in a non-US context.  The article should either be globalized, or retitled to a US-centric Wikipedia article by adding United States in the title somehow. N2e (talk) 02:32, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  United States of Where? Article needs GLOBALIZATION!

message: After more than one year of discussion, no one has contributed any non-U.S. information to the article. Since the contents are strictly U.S.-specific, I have moved the article from Treasury security to U.S. Treasury security and removed the "Globalize" tag. I maintained the capitalization on "Treasury" because it is short for the "U.S. Department of Treasury." --HYC (talk) 18:46, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Article renamed

message: It's mentioned that "savings bonds can be replaced if lost or destroyed". Can this process be explained?
Thanks. Pzxkys 10:44, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It appears that paper savings bonds have social security numbers printed on them so that ownership can be traced. However, the text you quoted is no longer in the article. --HYC (talk) 18:46, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Regarding replacement of lost savings bonds 

message: Are T-Bills protected from Medicare calculations ?15.251.201.70 16:28, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you mean, is the interest subject to Medicare tax?  If that's what you mean, then no; only earned income is subject to Social Security and Medicare tax, interest income (including income on bonds) is only subject to normal federal tax.  US government bonds are also exempt from any state tax.  24.8.252.164 (talk) 13:24, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  T-Bills and Medicare 

message: I was trying to learn about the federal bonds and the money system, but found it very difficult to read these artciles, as they ponder some insignificant details without adressing some very simple and natural questions:
* How is the bond interest determined? Is the interest guaranteed at maturity in advance? What are the typical interest rates and who determines them (on basic level, i.e. on the level of basic bonds)?
As mentioned in the article, the interest rate on marketable debt is established by auction.  The basic method is as follows.  The sale of a particular security is announced to the public - usually market news services report these.  The sale will detail the total amount to be sold, the maturity of the security, the time of the auction, and the CUSIP identifying number of the security.  You will see, for example, a tiny paragraph in The Wall Street Journal in section C on Fridays and Tuesdays detailing the sale.  By the scheduled time (e.g., 1:00 est on Monday) bidders and their dealer representatives will submit bids through a system managed by the Bureau of Public Debt and the Federal Reserve.  Each bid will specify how much money and at what interest rate the bidder would be willing to accept.  The Treasury starts with the lowest bid (based on lowest interest rate bid, which is also the highest price for the debt bid) and cumulates the total amount of money bid.  It continues until the accumulation equals the amount of debt to be sold.  The interest rate bid at that point (called the stopout rate) becomes the interest rate for the issue.  All bidders who were willing to accept a lower interest rate get their bid at the stopout rate.  All other bidders get nothing.  I believe one of my earlier versions of this article described that system as a Dutch, or single-price, auction.Vajs (talk) 18:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Basic questions not addressed 

message: I have undone the edit that removed discussion of other marketable debt beyond Treasury bills.  I have done so because the picture of US Treasury securities would be unbalanced otherwise.  T-bills make up 21-24% (depending on time of year) of all outstanding marketable US Treasury debt.  TIPS currently make up about 10% and notes and bonds make up the remaining 65% of the debt.  To eliminate 75% of the topic seemed to create an inaccurate picture.  Vajs (talk) 18:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why was all the specific information deleted from the article? 

message: Does anyone know when the coupons are paid?
Are they paid in the same months for ALL bonds or is it worked out based on the maturity (so different maturities pay interest on different months/days).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.244.153.18 (talk) 09:46, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm pretty sure it's on every six month anaversity of the actual bond. And I think they avoid issuing new bonds on Feb 29th of leap years to avoid the leap year birthday paradox. Jon (talk) 17:58, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coupon payment dates 

message: Any thoughts on adding a section or seperate article about TreasuryDirect? 66.191.19.217 (talk) 01:40, 8 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  TreasuryDirect? 

message: The article currently says HH Bonds are "sold at a discount and mature at face value".  Sources I've found on the web say they were sold at face value:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_hhbonds_glance.htm, from the US Govt, says "Unlike EE bonds, HH bonds are current-income securities. You paid face value, and receive interest payments by direct deposit to your checking or savings account every 6 months until maturity or redemption."
http://www.njseniorlaw.com/courier_article/estate_administration/us_savings_bonds.htm says "The redemption value of the bonds remains constant at the amount invested.  Interest is paid to the bondholder every six months. When the bondholder cashes an H/HH bond, he receives his original investment back."
http://www.savingsbonds.com/bond_basics/hhbond1.cfm says "Issued:  January 1980 to Present, at 100 percent of the face amount."
I leave it to somebody more knowledgable than me to make the change, if warranted. Peter Delmonte (talk) 02:26, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  HH Bonds "Sold at a discount" ? 

message: Is this a joke? Anyone have a citation for TIPS initially being called "Treasury Inflation-Targeted Securities" (with a funny acronym)?
--Boreas231 (talk) 22:52, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "Bail Out Our Banks Securities", a product of the Bush - Obama transition team?  Possible dual presidential pictures on the new $3 bill?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.103.31.30 (talk) 19:06, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Treasury Inflation-Targeted Securities? 

message: The citation (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/faq/legacychanges.htm) for the statement that 30 year TIPS are no longer offered does not support that statement, it discusses 30 treasury bonds and 20 year TIPS no longer being sold through some legacy system. Looking around treasury direct, there is no mention anywhere of 30 year TIPS ever being offered in the first place.
4.229.198.74 (talk) 23:46, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Found a potentially useful textbook reference that supports this statement: "Finance scholars Martinelli, Priaulet and Priaulet state that inflation-indexed securities in general (including those used in the United Kingdom and France) are an efficient way of diversifying a portfolio because they have a weak correlation with stocks, fixed-coupon bonds and cash equivalents. They can also be used by insurance companies and pension funds to optimize asset and liability management."[1] Cordially, BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 15:43, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Please suggest the article text you would like cited to that source? SPECIFICO talk 16:29, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: @User:SPECIFICO The TIPS section of United States Treasury security. I published it this morning. BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 11:13, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I see. I misunderstood, thinking that was a quote of the source. I've made a copyedit and removed the redundant second sentence. Thanks for finding that source. SPECIFICO talk 13:33, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  TIPS 

message: a section in the article refer to China as being the primary holder of bond. however on examination, China only hold under 30% of foreign held debt, and foreign held debt account for only 30% of total debt in circulation. multiplied: China therefore hold about 9% of total US debt. if we do the math where US has about 10 trillion debt, and China hold about 800 billion of bond, the 9% seem accurate. hence using the term "number one holder of U.S. debt" is inaccurate. the majority of US national debt is still in American hands. 
an interesting thing to note is that China did not buy the debt with it's own money. instead the money come from selling bonds. we are having a situation that is similar to paying 1 credit card bill with another credit card. we haven't seen the real bubble yet. Akinkhoo (talk) 20:22, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  China's holding 

message: The image with a formula for Discount Yield % has a term 360/Days till maturity....Why is it 360 as opposed to 365?  365 makes sense and appears on other sites, for example
here  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Teej (talk • contribs) 17:48, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: U.S. T-bills use a day count convention of Actual/360, which, for the purpose of convenient math, treats a year as being 360 days long. The "Actual" part means that months are treated as their real length; 30/360 would mean all months would be treated as if they were thirty days.  Actual/Actual, which is what you were expecting to see, is used by U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, but not bills. See the day count article for more details. --ShadowRangerRIT (talk) 16:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discount Yield Calculation 

message: It would be good to know both currently and historically how much (or what percentage) by term-length the US Debt is.  The closest thing I've seen is http://trueslant.com/michaelpollaro/2010/02/19/interest-on-u-s-government-debt-a-brewing-time-bomb/ that has a graph near the middle of the page with the Average Years to Maturity over time, but I'm interested in something more granular.  For example, how much debt (percentage and/or absolute) is held with 1-year term bonds vs. 5-year, 10-year or 30-year bonds?
It is clear that during low-interest periods (like now), Treasury would love to shift the ratios to the longer terms, but how successful have they been?  The rate of shift might indicate confidence and have other implications that might be useful to observe.
Maybe this is irrelevant since it seems like most bonds have both a fixed and inflation-adjusted rate, but it would help to understand how the fixed component is going to play out and I guess assuming that the inflation-adjusted portion somewhat tracks GDP (or more importantly tax revenues), the fixed portion becomes more relevant.
Anyway, I'd welcome more data related to shifting term-lengths and a discussion of the implications.  (I hope this is an appropriate place for this; if not, can you suggest another place.)
--Kjpires (talk) 13:29, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Historical US Debt Distribution by Term-Length 

message: "There is fear that foreign countries hold so many bonds that if they stopped buying them, the U.S. economy would collapse; however, the reality is that more bonds are transferred in a single day by the Treasury than are held by any single sovereign state". Why on earth is the rate of transfer considered relevant to the risk of a buyers' strike? jiHymas@himivest.com  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.91.125.35 (talk) 00:29, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Transactions vs. Holdings 

message: The anonymous user 99.46.205.85 wrote the following:
:This is incorrect.  The bond equivalent yield formula is shown,,, not the discount yield... the difference is 360 in the numerator, and 'face value' in the denominator.
about this formula:
:\text{Discount Yield} (\%) = \frac{\text{Face Value} - \text{Purchase Price}}{\text{Face Value}} \times \frac{\text{360}}{\text{Days Till Maturity}} \times 100[\%]
This formula matches this source: 
So, I have left it in place for now but tagged it as disputed.  If there are any experts that want to confirm or correct this vocabulary definition, that would be great. -- Beland (talk) 18:27, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discount rate formula 

message: In the section about EE savings bonds, it says "At 0.10%, a $100 bond would be worth about $102 just before 20 years, but will be adjusted to the maturity value of $200 at 20 years (giving it an effective rate of 3.5%) then continue to earn the fixed rate for 10 more years." However, this statement contradicts itself. If its worth $102 just before the 20 year mark, it can't possibly be worth $200 at the 20 year mark. I'm sure I'm misinterpreting something.
137.125.142.65 (talk) 01:08, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, you are. The entire point of Series EE bonds is that they are guaranteed to at least double their purchase price when they reach initial maturity at 20 years. So even if the actual accrued interest has not met the mark, the Treasury makes a one-time adjustment of principal to make it worth double the purchase price. (It continues to earn interest as a secondary maturation until the 30 year mark.) It's better explained in the United States Savings Bonds article. oknazevad (talk) 22:27, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contradictory statement about Series EE Savings Bonds. 

message: The statement 'Offering amounts for 4-week and 8-week bills are announced on Monday for auction the next day, Tuesday, and issuance on Thursday.' appears to be incorrect at this time. The 4 and 8 week bills are announced on Tuesday, for auction on Wednesday, and issuance on the following Tuesday. https://www.treasurydirect.gov/auctions/announcements-data-results/  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.0.218.183 (talk) 19:16, 31 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect timing on 4/8 week Treasury Bills