Barely Bonds
August 24, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Newt Gingrich and his American Solutions Silicon Valley point man David Kralik frequently tell the story of Census Bureau backwardness — captured here by the Washington Post:
Kralik puts the U.S. Census Bureau in the world-that-fails column. After spending more than $150 million on handheld computers to count everyone in the country, the Census Bureau announced a few weeks ago that it will scrap that program and hire 600,000 temporary workers and go back to the same way that it’s counted people since 1790: with paper and pen.
I had a Census Bureau-esque experience over the weekend — but with U.S. Savings Bonds.
Every year I buy a savings bond for my daughter for her birthday. Yes, a lousy investment, but solid for sentimentalism.
I always sit down with a bank desk clerk (Bank of America), enter the information directly into the computer, and within days the government savings bond arrives in the mail.
But not this year.
This year I was given a government form to handwrite out. The form is then mailed to the government. The bond doesn’t get to me until three-four weeks later. No computers are used. Only human hands touch the transaction.
I asked a bank rep why the change. She said she didn’t know, it’s just how the government does bonds now. No more computers.
Put this in the world-that-fails column as well.
Isaac said,
August 25, 2008 @ 9:18 am
You can buy bonds electronically on their website - www.treasurydirect.gov.
Jim in Texas said,
August 25, 2008 @ 9:35 am
I have way too many savings bonds from when I was in the USAF. A year ago I received an invitation to do away with the paper copies and go electronic at the site posted by the commenter above. File all the info and then I didn’t have to take the paper copies in to redeem them; sweet.
Then I read the small print. I entered all of them (several hundred) and just before I hit enter I reviewed the condition. Buried in the flotsam was a provision. After the electronic version matured it no longer would pay additional interest on top of the redeemed face value, something all paper bonds do.
D said,
August 25, 2008 @ 9:37 am
Large computer systems fail in the private sector all the time, but you don’t hear them because nobody in the company would mention it, and the contractors like SAP are afraid they will get sued. SAP has been sued a number of times for systems that never get off the ground due to complexity and poor planning. When that happens at the government, it is out there for everyone to see, and it looks bad.
So. They occasionally have to scrap them, and this ALSO means that the govt. is less likely to take chances in the first place.
The bright side to all this is that they DO know how to use paper, and get the job done. Sometimes paper is the best thing to start with, witness the debacle of electronic voting. As long as there is a decent interface between paper as the input device and the computer as the recording device, it works out well. Especially at census, it is important to have a good human interface, and for that, it’s good to have a human. Sounds like your bank in the case of savings bonds doesn’t want to play ball with the govt. system. It may be such a low volume that it isn’t worth their while.
Computers don’t solve every problem, and they often create many, so they should be used when needed instead of as a default for everything. Often they are needed as storage and retrieval devices. That is where they shine, and that is several tiers away from the initial human input. As a SysAdmin I know plenty of stories…
redherkey said,
August 25, 2008 @ 10:25 am
I’d be curious if this is FISMA related… e.g. some regulatory deadline was missed where the relevant government information systems had to either be fully compliant, or deactivated. As someone who works in the highly regulated financial industry (but private sector) in the governance, risk and compliance field, I occasionally see the journal articles mentioning how many divisions of the government are completely deficient, getting D’s or F’s on their scores, etc. I wondered how long they’d let them continue with failing grades before enacting some effort to contain the risk.
I’m just waiting for the day we all get re-issued social security numbers after some part of the government lets them all loose. From how sloppy many of their controls are, it’s just a matter of time.
Avonelle Lovhaug said,
August 25, 2008 @ 10:42 am
Before using the link Isaac provided to buy savings bonds online, consider a few things:
- The site has the most ridiculous approach to online security I’ve ever seen. To enter your password, you can’t use your keyboard. Instead, you must use a virtual keyboard that each time shows the keys in a different order. Ugh. It is awful.
- They have now added some additional security approach that involves an “access card” that they sent me. I’ve been afraid to go online to try it, because it was not presented as a way to make the arduous security easier. Instead, it was suggested this was an additional layer of security. Believe me, they don’t need more layers, unless the intent is to make it so difficult that no one will use it. (Given this post, perhaps the real intent is to get rid of savings bonds entirely.)
- Unless this has changed recently, if you buy savings bonds as a gift for someone, they don’t receive a copy of the bond or any info about the bond unless they also create accounts online. This means that not only do YOU have to suffer the stupid security approach, but the recipients of your gift do, too. If the recipients of your gift are not tech-savvy, you realize quickly what a burden you are placing on them.
I buy savings bonds for my nieces and nephews every year for birthdays and Christmas. I tried this approach exactly once, and realized pretty quickly that this would never work for my family. So, now I go to my local bank each and every time. Phooey.
Jimmy said,
August 25, 2008 @ 11:09 am
For the love of God, do not buy savings bonds. I would only buy them for people I hate, but I don’t hate anyone that much.
AC said,
August 25, 2008 @ 11:47 am
The “click to type” thing is because the Russians and Chinese have infected so many computers with keystroke loggers and this saves peoples hides.
Citibank in OZ users one, I hate it, but I see it as the unfortunate wave of the future.
-AC
richard said,
August 25, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
I woked for many years for a state government. Over a decade ago, they decided to creat a soup-to nuts computer system to replace their fragmented (or non-existent) systems. First module, piggy-backed on the extisting accounting system, went fine. Second module, adapted from some other state’s procurement system, wnr fine. Third module, for personnel, never got off the ground. Fourth module, for the operating budget, was rolld out but never worked properly, so was abandoned.
The most amazing thing was, none of the failures made it into the media; I expect that was because none of them directly affected the public, so were too ‘inside baseball’ for anyone to care!
Siggy said,
August 25, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
For the love of God, do not buy savings bonds? Why not? So you can buy stocks? I-Bonds are paying an effective yield, when you factor in the state income tax exemption, of just over 5% right now. What is the other AAA rated 5% that you are getting Jimmy? The downside is that you can only buy $10,000 per year. Oh, and I filled out a form at the teller window and had my bonds in 7-10 days, so I haven’t had any problem on that score. And no, I don’t work for the Treasury!
Bill said,
August 25, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
The site also does not let you just buy a bond, but wants a bank account number for apparently a regular schedule of purchases.
Jeff Adkins said,
August 25, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
It is quite possible the problem is the Bank and not the US Treasury.
It seems that whenever I deal with one of the larger banks such as Wells Fargo or US Bank, I end up shaking my head at some of the nonsense they try to pass off.
Aaron said,
August 25, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
Savings Bonds are about the only investment you can buy for your children that does not result in a tax return needing to be filed for them.