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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: xzins
For anyone to claim they have a trillion dollars worth of platinum would require that they have more than a single coin or that the single coin be the size of a mountain. Otherwise, they are perpetrating fraud.
The fraud began decades ago when they started pretending that a piece of paper with the word DOLLAR printed on it was the same thing as an actual dollar. This idea is just one more scrap on the whole fraudulent midden heap.
81
posted on
12/08/2012 9:02:06 PM PST
by
mvpel
(Michael Pelletier)
To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
82
posted on
12/08/2012 10:41:42 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: SeekAndFind
Might as well stamp out a couple wooden nickels
To: ctdonath2
I just saw that episode of Pawn Stars!
84
posted on
12/09/2012 4:21:49 AM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: mvpel
The fraud began decades ago when they started pretending that a piece of paper with the word DOLLAR printed on it was the same thing as an actual dollar. I have some of those!
Under the image of the President (where it NOW says merely Ten Dollars), it USED to say (1934 SERIES):
Will Pay To The Bearer On Demand
Ten Dollars
And where our present bills say:
THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER
FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
used TO SAY:
THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS,
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, AND IS REDEEMABLE IN
LAWFUL MONEY AT THE UNITED STATES TREASURY,
OR AT ANY FEDERAL RESERVE BANK.
The 1928a series said:
REDEEMABLE IN GOLD ON DEMAND
AT THE UNITED STATES TREASURY,
OR IN GOLD OR LAWFUL MONEY
AT ANY FEDERAL RESERVE BANK.
85
posted on
12/09/2012 4:45:37 AM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: ballplayer
Inflation has driven the cost of a wooden nickel to 47¢ (if you get a 100 of them)
http://www.wooden-nickel.net/
86
posted on
12/09/2012 4:51:30 AM PST
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: SeekAndFind
The same folks that called Reagan's tax cuts "Voodoo Economics" before the resulting record 25-year economic boom.
Wealth-creation economics is an unsolvable mystery to the Left. That's because the Left is married to Socialist Central Government Control, which is anathema to wealth creation. They keep trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
It's part of the sad story of the history of man and government. America held out for 250 years as the exception but it seems to be finally succumbing to the inevitability of man's darkened understanding. Obama is only the figurehead.
87
posted on
12/09/2012 7:23:41 AM PST
by
PapaNew
To: DEADROCK
"Stamp 5 extra and pay off China. See how that works out for the commies on both sides."Exactly.
To: Stosh
Once upon a time, the smartest people in the country would apply all their brain power in a serious fashion to actually solve real problems.
Its an indictment of the times we live in that the people in charge apply all their brain power to come up with the cleverest methods they can to *avoid* solving serious problems.
I once heard these exact same sentiments expressed over the criminal class, aka Mafia. You can apply it also to the Thug class. They will come up with some amazing schemes just to avoid a real ‘job’.
To: SeekAndFind
As far as I’m concerned that would constitute an Act of War against The People.
90
posted on
12/09/2012 8:18:31 AM PST
by
Psycho_Bunny
(Thought Puzzle: Describe Islam without using the phrase "mental disorder" more than four times.)
To: SeekAndFind
I like it, says Joseph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Theres nothing thats obviously economically problematic about it.This person actually gets paid to teach college students? Really?
91
posted on
12/09/2012 8:30:04 AM PST
by
Hoodat
("As for God, His way is perfect" - Psalm 18:30)
To: arthurus
Oh no, a famine is a crisis they can use. Supply food to those who play ball, let the rest starve. It’s the only way to get rid of that 25 million Ayers talked about eliminating.
92
posted on
12/09/2012 8:36:55 AM PST
by
ichabod1
(Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
To: DEADROCK
I offer a similar argument to liberals who insist that we raise the minimum wage. I always say, "Well, if raising the minimum wage is a good thing, then why not raise it to $100/hr?"
I always get back stared silence as their logic-free brains try to compute. They know that there has to be something wrong with it, but they are clueless as to figuring out why.
93
posted on
12/09/2012 8:40:37 AM PST
by
Hoodat
("As for God, His way is perfect" - Psalm 18:30)
To: GraceG
Yes, exactly. There is NO relationship between the value of the metal and the value they are talking about “deeming” it to have.
94
posted on
12/09/2012 8:43:11 AM PST
by
ichabod1
(Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
To: SeekAndFind
With the way government seems to want to function, why even bother with gimmicks such as trillion dollar coins, or even printing money?
Why not just have the government write all it’s checks with no funding needed to back them up? That way, they’d never have to worry about taxing anybody, and would also be able to fund all the projects that the country could imagine.
Heck, why even worry about working for a living, since, the country would have a never-ending supply of money, to use as needed or wanted or wished.
95
posted on
12/09/2012 8:44:26 AM PST
by
adorno
(Y)
To: SeekAndFind
Two coins, each worth a trillion dollars.
Imagine the movie, where a heist of the federal reserve occurs, and the robbers steal both coins. Would the federal reserve have lost those trillions, or would they just issue another 2 coins as replacements? Would the robbers have coins that reflect any real value?
96
posted on
12/09/2012 8:52:06 AM PST
by
adorno
(Y)
To: GeronL
Even dummies should be able to see the problem with this.
Doubtful.
To them, it would be the most ingenious idea ever.
97
posted on
12/09/2012 8:55:13 AM PST
by
adorno
(Y)
To: hinckley buzzard
Yes, we ARE in a different world, hence my recent tagline. I started saying a few years ago in conversations that anyone who speaks what our grandparents or great grandparents or even our parents in the case of people of my age or older used to consider plain common sense, as obvious as the sunrise, are called nutcases or extremists. In this state we are losing our great senator Jim Demint who is resigning his seat. I have had people who are supposedly very conservative, including one retired lieutenant colonel, tell me that Mr. Demint is an “extremist”. My standard reply is NO, Mr. Demint is a traditional American of the sort we used to praise highly and hold up as role models. Those who CALL him an extremist are the real extremists.
On the other hand people who spout what used to be instantly recognized as idiocy are held up as role models and elected to the highest offices, up to and including the presidency.
My tagline at one time was IDIOCRACY IS A DOCUMENTARY.
The root of our problems is the fact that our educational system was taken over decades ago by people who teach absurdity as truth and their purpose has been to destroy the USA and they have done a nearly perfect job. We now have college graduates who in many cases would have been laughed out of a public school eighth grade classroom sixty years ago.
98
posted on
12/09/2012 9:01:54 AM PST
by
RipSawyer
(I was born on Earth, what planet is this?)
To: Revolting cat!; Slings and Arrows
Obama will mint this and then promptly lose it in the parking lot someplace.
To: SeekAndFind
Why don’t we just “deem” the debt as paid?
About as much sense as a trillion dollar coin.
100
posted on
12/09/2012 9:39:40 AM PST
by
hattend
(Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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