17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
Peter Hendrickson says:
The IRS made bearer bonds illegal about ten years ago. It seems people were using them to evade income tax. I believe they are forbidden within the United States and U.S. citizens are forbidden to own them at all anywhere.
Not really true -- much of US debt is still in the form of bearer bonds, although new bearer bonds are not being produced. I don't think they were made illegal per se -- I forget what was used to prevent them from being issued. In any case, bearer instruments in the generic sense are perfectly legal. Write a check to "CASH" and what you have is a bearer instrument. People wanting to learn about this should get a book on commercial paper, which is the subset of the law we are discussing. Perry