[slacktide]

It's really not. If you buy a house with a mortgage, and later sell the house before the note is due, you will not owe the full amount of the accrued interest. Unfortunately the resale value of a secondhand war is very low.

[OJFord]

Of course you do, you're just typically rolling it into another mortgage on the next place.

Anyway I didn't say and didn't mean it's the only valid interpretation of 'spent', just that it is one.

[thaumasiotes]

No, you don't.

You might in a state of nature, but the US has laws against prepayment penalties for mortgages. (Well, against the mortgage originator charging prepayment penalties.) You don't owe interest until it accrues.

[OJFord]

Right, you 'owe the full amount of accrued interest'... Which is not as much as the amount that would've accrued if held to term. I think this is rather beside the point anyway!

[ineedasername]

the resale value of a secondhand war is very low.

"20 Year old slow-burn war available for reasonable price. Population w/ low morale, lots of growth potential! Motivated buyers only please."

[toast0]

Maybe we should see if the first owner wants to buy it back?

[ineedasername]

I guess that's true, the war was owned by Russia before the US purchased it at a very steep markup, while the Russians probably got a good deal on it from the Brits after it sat on a shelf for a century or so.

I'm hopeful, though not at all optimistic in the short term, that it will now be EOL'ed. Unfortunately, as a product class these things tend to be very durable, and families can pass them down for generations as a curiosity until someone decides to put it back in the market. Or some new startup sees a chance to innovate while moving fast and breaking things.

[epistasis]

I don't think there's any clause in US bonds that lets the US pay back the debt to avoid future coupon payments, like there is with a mortgage.

However, since there's an open market for t bills, the treasury could buy back a certain number of bonds that people are willing to sell.

However it's not quite the same. The only reason that problem don't calculate the cost of the mortgage over time is that they are more concerned with asset values, not because it's better accounting.

[finnh]

> you will not owe the full amount of the accrued interest

Yes, you will. "accrued interest" is "unpaid interest as of the time of ___"; at the moment you sell the house you will have paid all of the interest up to that moment.

There's no early-payment penalty on mortgages, as of the last many decades; maybe that's what you mean?

[liketochill]

I have early payment penalties on my mortgage. Would love it if there weren’t. I’m in Canada.

[finnh]

ugh. sorry to hear it - didn't realize that Canada was still up to those tricks

[jonnydubowsky]

"The resale value of a second-hand war" is a fantastic phrase! It sounds like a Neil Young lyric. Nicely done.