Posted on 01/10/2013 7:23:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Much of the last 4 years has been a nightmare for conservatives. But there is a crazy, stupid, absurd idea being seriously discussed in Washington that makes previous nightmares from the White House pale in comparison.
The idea is for the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin and declare it to be worth $1 trillion. If Congress won't raise the debt ceiling, the coin would be deposited at the Federal Reserve and Obama could continue to spend money.
Congress passed a bill allowing for the minting of platinum coins several years ago. But it was a bill designed to aid investors and collectors. Unfortunately, someone forgot to put in a limit on how much a platinum coin could be minted for. Thus, a gigantic loophole that liberals see as a way to stick to the GOP while spending money as fast as it can be printed.
Is it legal? Partisan constitutional scholar Lawrence Tribe says yes:
"I don't think it makes sense to think about this as some sort of "loophole" issue. Using the statute this way doesn't entail exploiting a loophole; it entails just reading the plain language that Congress used. The statute clearly does authorize the issuance of trillion-dollar coins. First, the statute itself doesn't set any limit on coin value. Second, other clauses of 31 USC §5112 do set such limits, but §5112(k)-dealing with platinum coins-does not. So expressio unius strengthens the inference that there isn't any limit here."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Yes. Isn’t this what the dictators in African countries do? Print money in outrageous denominations, and it ends up as worthless paper.
How about if I pay my taxes using a “coin” I create that I claim is worth whatever I want it to be worth?
Reminds me of a saying: “I can’t be out of money in my account; I still have checks!”
Screw it. I’m buying seeds.
So, this isn't a loophole - but businesses that are dropping employees and hours because of Obamacare is a loophole. Got it.
That's OK, Nancy and Harry will just deem it minted!
See how easy running gubmint is?
Only Congress has the power to coin money and set the value of such money. But the socialist Obama and his Democrat Party won't let that stand in their way:
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
And soon, only three of them will buy you a loaf of bread.
Oh gosh...please don’t give them any ideas!
A coin worth 1 trillion on paper,only he can think like that.
Warm up the rubber room he’s ready.
You have to hand it to them. Platinum is a nice touch. Great way to win over the low information voters.
Current price for Platinum is $1630.00 per ounce!
That’s gonna be one huge coin!
Any chance it'll cause our credit rating to get cut?
Any chance it won't? Even if it doesn't happen, if this ludicrous proposal gets any serious traction then we will see all commodities spike in price and a refusal of foreigners to buy our Treasuries at all. Then we'll be stuck with the Fed buying our debt (i.e. monetizing).
Oh, yeah, we're already monetizing to the extent of $85 billion/month. I guess that Maobama just decided that a quick poison is better than a slow one.
Any chance it'll cause our credit rating to get cut?
Not directly. Our credit rating is based on us paying our bills. Since our bills are all in US Dollars, it doesn't matter how worthless they are for that purpose. If our bills were in Euros and the dollar plunged to $1000 to the Euro, we'd be in huge trouble.
Of course, if our currency crashed due to hyperinflation, we'll have all kinds of other problems which will probably lead to a loss of credit rating.
I've read some claims that this coin trick won't lead to hyper-inflation, but I just don't buy it. Maybe it's that I don't understand the complexities of the economics, but it sure seems like a bad idea from a monetary policy standpoint.
“And if you COULD buy something with it, what would that “something” be? Congress? Yosemite?
What exactly?”
I seriously expect that the time may come in the nation’s history when the selling off of national parks like Yosemite (for astronomical sums of cash, of course) may actually be considered as a last-ditch effort to raise revenue.
I’m sure the Chinese or Saudis would be interested, if those properties became available...
If they can make two of them today, they can just as easily make 200 next month, on a whim. I’d think that would give creditors cause for concern.
If they can make two of them today, they can just as easily make 200 next month, on a whim. I’d think that would give creditors cause for concern.
The whole point of this weird idea is to avoid an official raising of the debt ceiling (by paying ourselves with an IOU -- I really don't get how this is supposed to work). Anyway, debt ceiling raises are typically less than $1 trillion although the last one was $2 trillion. The idea is that we'll only need one coin -- at least this year.
200 coins is "not going to happen," according to people who think it makes sense for 1 coin to happen. I think they fully intend that to be true, but once we've taken the trip into downtown crazyville, who knows...
Seems like every time those people tell us something's not going to happen, it does.
If the federal gubmint of the US resorts to inflationary financing on that scale to pay its bills, then there will be an unparalleled global depression, an economic ww2, from the resulting hyperinflationary spiral.
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