Patriot bonds

[pmichaillat]

Related to the discussion we had on wealth in the utility function and Camilla's war bonds, I have just found out that the US government issued "patriot bonds" between 2001 and 2011.

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/ee-bonds/

"Some paper EE bonds that we sold between 2001 and 2011 say "Patriot Bond" on them. They were a special edition to fund anti-terrorism. Everything about EE bonds applies to these Patriot Bonds."

It does look like a way to increase the utility derived from saving, just like special-edition sneakers or books.

[camilla-adams]

Very interesting. I've never heard of these. Thanks for sharing!

[aolattus]

I read this paper on war bonds for my project in my other course: it's not quite what we were talking about but the authors linked New Deal spending with an increase in patriotism, which they proxied with war bond spending. So the data is out there, Camilla, if you want to do something with this topic!

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3149477