cynical and disgusted

Producer Price Inflation Is Not Dead

TIPS offer nice coupons right now but to get 2.5% you need to invest for 20 year based on the january 30 auction. To get your money back you have to either wait till maturity or sell them on the open market. However, if interest rates rise, you won't get full value if you sell before maturity.

An interesting, certainly more flexible, and possibly better paying alternative is I-bonds. These savings bonds currently pay only 0.7% plus inflation. But, you can sell them back to the government at full values (less three months interest anytime after 6 months. If you buy I bonds today you will get 5.64% for the next 6 months. You can get your money back in a year and still make more than 2.8%.