Posted on 01/04/2013 6:27:47 PM PST by Red in Blue PA
What if the threat of a voluntary default by the United States could be erased by simply turning one tiny scrap of platinum into a coin?
That's right. No debt ceiling problem. No bickering in Congress. No market jitters. The only thing needed is for the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion.
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If Congress does not act to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. will default on its debts. Not good. But this is where the platinum coin comes in. Normally, the Federal Reserve is charged with issuing currency. But U.S. law, specifically 31 USC § 5112, also grants Treasury permission to "mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins."
This section of law was meant to allow for the printing of commemorative coins and the like. But the Treasury Secretary has the authority to mint these coins in any denomination he or she sees fit.
With a $1 trillion coin in hand, Treasury could deposit the money into Fed accounts, and pay its debts in that manner, instead of relying on bond issuance.
And none of this requires Congressional consent. Talk about an elegant solution.
The White House unsurprisingly hasn't commented on the idea. But Rep. Jerrold Nadler is on board. "I'm being absolutely serious," he told Capital NY. "It sounds silly but it's absolutely legal."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Seriously. I think I saw this on an episode of the Simpsons. Mr. Burns had a billion or trillion dollar bill and Fidel Castro stole it.
Anyone see that one?
So of course, Nadler would be behind it.
Mark
Why waste money on platinum? Can't they use paper?
They've been doing that for some time now, which is why the Fed now owns the majority of Treasury securities.
This is simply "Presto, change-o! The debt is GONE!"
Anybody wonder what this will do to the "full faith & credit" of any US currency or security?
Mark
I’m thinkin obama’s a$$.
Of course the coin can end our problems. As long as we find some idiot willing to believe that it is worth a trillion. That is the nature of fiat money.
The Chinese, having put dollars of value into treasuries will not be pleased. The only one who has bought worthless securities with worthless dollars is the Fed.
This absurdity should have DumBO’s face on one side and his turd on the other, so, anyone receiving it will be dumped on.
“Perhaps they could give a few of these coins to the Chinese as payment of the debt. I’m sure that would work just fine. Not.”
The Chinese have stopped buying our debt. That’s the real reason the Fed is printing money to buy Treasury debt. If the Fed wasn’t buying, interest rates would be soaring.
Currency just divides up the wealth of those holding that currency. Issuing more by fiat just rearranges the distribution, diminishing the holdings and imputing the variance to the new currency.
Total cash is somewhere around 3 trillion dollars. Issuing a trillion dollar coin serves only to devalue the aforementioned cash by 33% and teleport that value to the new coin’s holders. It may satisfy the letter of law and contract, but is no more than theft. Grand theft, unpunished (nay, facilitated) by law, leads us to violent retribution - let us not go there.
I'll even let 'em keep the change! :-P
I hope you realize the Federal Reserve is a private bank. It is like China which used to buy our debt. A separate entity from the Federal Gov’t
How long before said platinum coins won’t buy a pair of shoelaces?
No. They’re serious.
You see, what they want to do is create some fiat currency to deposit with the fiat-currency creators, so that the fiat-currency creators can chalk it up as an asset and the fiat-currency coin can be used as an asset to pay down the debt caused by the fiat-currency creators and those who obtain and increase power by giving the OK to fiat-currency creators to create more fiat currency, so that those in power have fiat currency to spend in order to buy votes.
It makes perfect sense in an economy that uses fiat currency and fractional-reserve banking as its monetary policy.
Got a whole stack of 1Trillion Zimbabwe dollars for them to try.
The protest in Zimbabwe was when people at night went out and glued these on public buildings like wallpaper— they were worth so little.
So, NO two coins won’t “do” it. Nor will it stop spending before ceiling is reached, which is the real cause. That and keynesian bs.
why not simply print a Trillion Dollar Bill??? same/same, neither is of any value...
A Trillion dollar coin that contained 1 trillion in platinum at the current value of the metal would require more platinum than has ever been mined.
Minting a coin which in which the face value does not reasonably reflect, when issued, the value of the metal in it is either counterfeiting or it has no more value than a paper dollar.
“Can a $1 Trillion Coin End Debt Ceiling Crisis?”
Is this the best “funny money” ya ever heard of, or what?
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