Don’t like the platinum coin option? Here’s a functionally equivalent alternative: have the Treasury sell pieces of paper labeled “moral obligation coupons”, which declare the intention of the government to redeem these coupons at face value in one year. It should be clearly stated on the coupons that the government has no, repeat no, legal obligation to pay anything at all; you see, they’re not debt, and therefore don’t count against the debt limit.
But that shouldn’t keep them from having substantial market value. Consider, for example, the fact that the government has no legal responsibility for guaranteeing the debt of Fannie and Freddie; nonetheless, it is widely believed that there is an implicit guarantee (because there is!), and this is very much reflected in the price of that debt.
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Be Ready To Mint That Coin
Should President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillion platinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely. He will, after all, be faced with a choice between two alternatives: one that’s silly but benign, the other that’s equally silly but both vile and disastrous. The decision should be obvious. For those new to this, here’s the story. First of all, we have the weird and destructive institution of the debt ceiling; this lets Congress approve tax and spending bills that imply a large budget deficit — tax and spending bills the president is legally required to implement — and then lets Congress refuse to grant the president authority to borrow, preventing him from carrying out his legal duties and provoking a possibly catastrophic default. And Republicans are openly threatening to use that potential for catastrophe to blackmail the president into implementing policies they can’t pass through normal constitutional processes. Enter the platinum coin.
There’s a legal loophole allowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins in any denomination the secretary chooses. Yes, it was intended to allow commemorative collector’s items — but that’s not what the letter of the law says. And by minting a $1 trillion coin, then depositing it at the Fed, the Treasury could acquire enough cash to sidestep the debt ceiling — while doing no economic harm at all. So why not? It’s easy to make sententious remarks to the effect that we shouldn’t look for gimmicks, we should sit down like serious people and deal with our problems realistically. That may sound reasonable — if you’ve been living in a cave for the past four years.
Given the realities of our political situation, and in particular the mixture of ruthlessness and craziness that now characterizes House Republicans, it’s just ridiculous — far more ridiculous than the notion of the coin. So if the 14th amendment solution — simply declaring that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional — isn’t workable, go with the coin. This still leaves the question of whose face goes on the coin — but that’s easy: John Boehner. Because without him and his colleagues, this wouldn’t be necessary.
- MarketWatch (blog) - 4 hours ago
- Fox News - 3 hours ago
$1 Trillion Platinum Coin: Not as “Silly” as Debt Ceiling Fight | Daily ...
finance.yahoo.com/.../1-trillion-platinum-coin-debate-o... - United States2 hours ago – From the blog Daily Ticker: A week ago the U.S. officially reached its $16.4 trillion debt ceiling, meaning the government can't issue new debt.Krugman joins the $1 trillion coin brigade - Political Watch ...
blogs.marketwatch.com/.../krugman-joins-the-1-trillion-coin-brigade/4 hours ago – Paul Krugman, the liberal economist who pens a widely read column for The New York Times, on Monday joined the calls for the U.S. to mint a ...Funny Money: Pundits float $1 trillion coin as answer to debt-ceiling ...
www.foxnews.com/.../funny-money-pundits-float-1-trillion-coin-as-a...2 hours ago – Is a trillion-dollar coin the solution to the next fight over the debt ceiling?Could a $1 trillion coin fix the national debt?- MSN Money
money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=94f60738... - United States5 hours ago – There's been talk of minting a massive coin of platinum to help solve the nation's debt ceiling problem. It's a fun idea that has lots of problems.Be Ready To Mint That Coin - NYTimes.com
krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/.../be-ready-to-mint-that-coin/
5 hours ago – Should President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillionplatinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely. He will ...
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