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Insane: Liberals Contemplate $1 Trillion Platinum Coin to "Solve" Debt Limit Issue
Townhall ^
| 12/08/2012
| Guy Benson
Posted on 12/08/2012 10:32:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Welcome to Zimbabwe. This is not a parody -- it is an actual report from the Washington Post:
Some economists and legal scholars have suggested that the “platinum coin option” is one way to defuse a crisis if Congress can’t or won’t lift the debt ceiling soon. At least in theory. The U.S. government is, after all, facing a real problem. The Treasury Department will hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by next February at the latest. Unless Congress reaches an agreement to raise that borrowing limit, the government will no longer be able to borrow enough money to pay all its bills. Last year, Republicans in Congress resisted lifting the debt ceiling until the last minute — and then only in exchange for spending cuts. Panic ensued. So what happens if there’s another showdown this year? Enter the platinum coins. Thanks to an odd loophole in current law, the U.S. Treasury is technically allowed to mint as many coins made of platinum as it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases. Under this scenario, the U.S. Mint would produce (say) a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins. The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve. The Fed then moves this money into Treasury’s accounts. And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations for the next two years — without needing to issue new debt. The ceiling is no longer an issue.
“I like it,” says Joseph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “There’s nothing that’s obviously economically problematic about it.” In theory, this is much like having the central bank print money. But, says Gagnon, the U.S. government would simply be using the money to keep spending at existing levels, so it wouldn’t create any extra inflation. And if it did cause problems, the Fed could always counteract the effects by winding down some of its other programs to inject money into the economy. Is the platinum coin option really legal? Apparently so. It was discussed* during the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis by Jack Balkin, a law professor at Yale Law School. Under law, he noted, there’s a limit to how much paper money the United States can circulate at any one time, and there are rules that limit how many gold, silver and copper coins the Treasury can mint. But there’s no such limit when it comes to platinum coins.
I'm at a loss for words. I mean, you'd think that there's no way on earth the White House would even float anything like this, if only because of the massive political risk and insane optics. But I guess you never know; Obama did just ask Congress to relinquish all of its debt limit-related powers to him, after all. It's difficult to identify the most mind-blowing element of this article, but economist Joseph Gagnon's quote might take the cake. There's "nothing that's obviously economically problematic" about this absurd scheme? Printing, or rather minting, $2 trillion in magic money, overnight, to artificially "pay for" existing federal obligations isn't "economically problematic"? In that case, we should print $87 Trillion in special coins and retire all of our accrued debts and obligations in one fell swoop. I'm sure the massive devaluation of the dollar, inflationary spikes, and total loss of confidence among our creditors would work themselves out somehow. Thank goodness for experts.
TOPICS: Breaking News; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 1trillion; coin; cookedthebooks; cultureofcorruption; currency; debtlimit; democrats; inflation; obama; obamascandals; platinum; platinumcoin; platinumcon
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To: Tennessee Nana
You Kiwi's ever have anything like THIS??
61
posted on
12/08/2012 3:24:09 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Gay State Conservative
62
posted on
12/08/2012 3:26:58 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Slings and Arrows
Frankly, with Agenda 21, elimination of Man as its object (in general), “To Serve Man” is apt.
It’s not the collapse of US that’s intended, it the death of US all.
Except ‘them.’
63
posted on
12/08/2012 3:31:09 PM PST
by
combat_boots
(The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto!)
To: Eleutheria5
Economic collapse starts when a coin accidentally rolls off the counting table and disappears down a drainage grate.Yeah, a tragedy! An entire year's deficit down the sewer.
Garcon!! Mint another trillion dollar coin!
64
posted on
12/08/2012 3:32:34 PM PST
by
Ole Okie
To: WildHighlander57
65
posted on
12/08/2012 3:37:58 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: xzins
Otherwise, they are perpetrating fraud.And we SURELY don't want that!
66
posted on
12/08/2012 3:39:53 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Jim Noble
Congress, not the Bureau of the Mint, has the power to coin money, and regulate the value thereof.
Yup.
And Zero is openly an unashamedly trying to bypass that, without amending the Constitution.
It’s an impeachable offense.
67
posted on
12/08/2012 3:46:21 PM PST
by
djf
(Conservative values help the poor. Liberal values help them STAY poor!!!)
To: Elsie
68
posted on
12/08/2012 3:48:14 PM PST
by
xzins
(Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
To: SeekAndFind
I was afraid they were going to do something like that. I joked once, “make a 100 trillion dollar bill” and pay everything off.”
69
posted on
12/08/2012 3:50:09 PM PST
by
Nowhere Man
(It is about time we re-enact Normandy, at the shores of the Potomac.)
To: Elsie
Oh that wee thing belongs in the West Island of NZ...
The North Island and the South Island...even Stewart Island have much bigger ones than that one...
and all the Hen and Chicken Islands have ones that put that puny thing to shame...
and the NZ wallabies are much bigger...
One could kick that Red Kanga’s butt...
To: Slings and Arrows
To: Gay State Conservative
It’s telling that the most impressive thing they can think of to put on their money is a pile of rocks.
72
posted on
12/08/2012 4:59:36 PM PST
by
PLMerite
(Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
To: Bobalu
I just watched that movie tonight for the first time.
It was scary.
73
posted on
12/08/2012 5:10:47 PM PST
by
PLMerite
(Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
To: PastorBooks
Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man.” available on Hulu, IIRC.
74
posted on
12/08/2012 5:23:22 PM PST
by
Slings and Arrows
(You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
To: SeekAndFind
It should be OK as long as they make the coins really, really big.
At the Federal Reserve...
Bob says: “Hey Herb...have you seen those $1 trillion coins I had out to weigh? I thought I had them on the counter right here.”
Herb, swallowing a Lance cheese cracker and popping the top on the Coke he just bought from the vending machine, says: “No, Bob...are you sure you had them out of the safe? Hey sorry. I forgot to ask you if you wanted anything from the break room.”
75
posted on
12/08/2012 5:44:01 PM PST
by
moovova
To: SeekAndFind
Always with
die große Lüge and trying to pull the next big fast one, when will the Dems figure out that they can't trust other Dems (and really never could), and that they are as screwed as the rest of us?
.
76
posted on
12/08/2012 5:50:57 PM PST
by
Seaplaner
(Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
To: SeekAndFind
Why donn’t they just mint a one quadrillion dollar coin out of dog crap while they are at it...
77
posted on
12/08/2012 7:10:36 PM PST
by
wastoute
(Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
To: xzins
Only if someone initiates it.
78
posted on
12/08/2012 7:18:09 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: PastorBooks
It’s a Twilight Zone episode.
79
posted on
12/08/2012 7:20:02 PM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: xzins
Notice that US gold coins - real 1oz ones - have a face value of $20 yet cost some ~$1500 to buy.
This has led to some rather interesting economic/tax consequences.
80
posted on
12/08/2012 7:56:27 PM PST
by
ctdonath2
($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com)
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