Today's Wall Street Journal has an article explaining the advantages of Series I (inflation indexed) savings bonds. You can buy them at
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/ols/olshome.htm
Apparently, you can use a credit card at no extra charge, and we all know what that means...
I wish I'd known about this earlier. It boosts the effective yield by 1% to 2%, essentially offsetting any early redemption penalty.