The US Gub’mnt has ASSETS so they can pay. We are far from being at the line where we will be forced to hand over anything other than more paper.
“Yeah, it’s a dumb idea, and not even possible since there isn’t a trillion dollars worth of platinum lying around anywhere for the taking.”
You seemed to miss the point of the platinum coin end-around. The U.S. government has the authority to declare the currency value of any piece of currency. Quarters aren’t worth 25 cents because they have 25 cents worth of metal in them: instead they cost pennies apiece to produce. Likewise, a $10,000 bill doesn’t have $10K of material in it or backing it. All of these pieces of currency take whatever value Uncle Sam assigns to them and are “legal tender” for paying debts etc.
I’m not saying the $1 trillion coin is a good idea, but as best I can tell it (unfortunately) appears to be perfectly legal. Of course, any country stupid enough to try this strategy might well find that its previous lenders quickly seek an escape exit.
Proposing borrowing against a fiat-defined coin is nor more worthless (in the full meaning of that word), than borrowing against the image of that same coin. Indeed, the Federal Reserve Corporation goes one step further and glances at the credit of my grandchildren when clicking on the computer mouse to have the computer create money from nothing. The dialogue goes something like this:
Create ONE trillion dollars? Yes/No.
Are you sure? Yes/No.
OK!
Fiat money enables the government monopoly to embezzle wealth from the holders of its currency by dilution of the value of that currency. It is theft plain and simple.