Hello, this is the Q&A episode of Slate Money, Normally your guide to the Business and Finance news of the week. This week, your answer

to all of your questions about business, finance, and anything else that you want to ask,

me, Felix Sampano Vaxios, Emily Peck of the Huffington Post, or indeed, Anna Schumanski,

who is going to answer the one question we have all had of Anna Shumansky. That's going to be up at the end of the episode. We're going to talk about gold. We're going to talk about certificates of deposit. We're going to talk about the Fed Fund's futures. We're going to talk about all manner of stuff. What else we're talking about?

RSUs. Lots of acronyms. There are lots of acronyms. There are acronyms up the world. Beto O'Rourke. We're going to talk about all manner of things. And for Slate Plus, we are going to give you our hottest podcast recommendations. You might be surprised at what Emily listens to. All that coming up on Slate Money.

Okay, let's start with Nicholas Kanzanari.

Thank you very much for writing in, Nicholas.

You have such a good question.

I love this question.

CDs, you say, not the little circular discs that play music, but the certificates of deposit offered by banks.

CDs seem totally pointless as a savings vehicle.

Large amounts of money locked up for a pittance of an interest rate are CDs pointless?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, that's that one.

I have to laugh because I actually had this conversation with a friend this week where I was trying to convince him to not put money in CDs.

So, okay, can you, because CDs are not so much a thing where I come from in the British Isles.

Why are they a thing here?

And is there like a historical reason why they used to be a good idea?

They used to be a better idea when rates were really high.

I mean, when you had much higher rates and you could lock in a high, I mean.

...