California IOUs Wanted on Craigslist
Monday, July 20, 2009

California’s ongoing budget debacle has produced a new kind of profiteer: IOU buyers. Once the state government began its new fiscal year on July 1 without a budget, officials offered IOUs for everything from tax refunds to payments for vendors. At first banks honored the IOUs, but many large institutions—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo—stopped accepting them about a week ago, leaving individuals and small businesses in the lurch because the state won’t redeem the IOUs until October 2.
So speculators have jumped in and begun advertising on Craigslist that they will buy up IOUs, but at a discount ranging from 60 to 95 cents on the dollar, figuring they will make a tidy profit come October when the state will buy up the IOUs at face value, plus interest at an annual rate of 3.75%. As of July 15, the state controller’s office had issued 137,000 IOUs worth $640 million.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
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