What’s the point of bearer bonds and how do they work?
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The biggest reason for their existence was anonymity and ease of transference. They worked a bit like large denomination cash before digital banking, they could be exchanged between entities for large transactions (like if one company wanted to pay another millions of dollars, you could do it with a suit case of bonds vs. trucks of 100 dollar bills). But they were also anonymous so transactions could be kept secret from regulators, governments, and tax agencies.
Of course all the above reasons sound like… wait, you’re telling me these are kind of the perfect thing for commit fraud, money laundering, and organized crime transactions, and you’re be perfectly right. That’s why we (the US at least) have created so many laws regulating/eliminating them that they pretty much aren’t a thing any more (here).
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