OK, NOW I KNOW...

I was puzzled about a wingnut claim on POLITICO about how our 401Ks and other accounts are being used as "secret" collateral for Treasury bonds but I figured this was just a lone nutter. According to David Neiwert at Crooks & Liars, this claim is from the "sovereign citizen" movement and has maybe 300K adherents:

At the heart of their belief system: The government creates a secret identity for each citizen at birth, a "straw man," that controls an account at the U.S. Treasury used as collateral for foreign debt. File enough documents at the right offices and the money in those accounts can be used to pay off debt or make purchases worth thousands of dollars.