I'd buy that for a dollar.
Posted on 09/20/2011 5:17:44 PM PDT by george76
Nope. FIRST was the Republican backed Eisenhower dollar. The Dems killed that, and came up with the Anthony. The republicans killed that, and everybody compromised on the minority female dollar. Then they decided they could make money on the presidential dollar series.
The politicians are too big of wimps to show the leadership to kill the dollar bill, which is now worth less than a dime.
Is this a cha-ching! ping?
Drop the penny and possibly the nickel. There is nothing you can buy with a penny, and a dime is the lowest unit of measurement of a workers time that makes sense given the minimum wage. i.e., a minute at the minimum wage is a little less than a dime, so that's the lowest billable unit of time. By at least dropping the penny we free up a slot in the cash-register till.
Possibly add a $5 coin. I'm not real sure abou this, but folks I know in canuckistan seem to like it.
Drop the dollar bill. The velocity of a $1 bill is such that they wear out in months. It costs a lot of money to continually replace worn currency.
Add a $500 bill.
A $100 bill is the largest currently circulating bill. It's a laughably small amount of money in historical terms.
Maryland "Freak State" PING!
i’d be in line outside the bank every morning.
Giving coins to, say, a valet-parking attendant, is unwieldy for both parties (particularly the attendant). I think that we should eliminate the dollar bill and use the dollar coin (coins circulate for many decades, while bills last on average a few months before getting worn out and being pulled from circulation), but we should bring back the $2 bill in full force. And I’d leave the other bills and coins as they are, with the possible exception of eliminating the penny (and rounding everything to the nearest nickel).
The Eisenhower dollar replaced the prior dollar coin soon after he died (1971 IIRC), approved by the Democrat Congress. In 1979, after years of complaints from feminists that the only non-allegorical persons featured in U.S. currency had been men, the Democrat Congress approved a new dollar coin with Susan B. Anthony (a Republican suffragist) on the obverse. The SBA dollar was a huge flop due to its size (much smaller than traditional dollar coins, and not much bigger than a quarter, leading to confusion when feeling for coins in one’s pocket), and they stopped minting them after 1981. However, by that time, most vending machines and buses and such had been adapted to accept SBA dollar-sized dollar coins. not the earlier, larger ones, and when the Treasury tried to bring back dollar coins in 1999 (with one final run of the SBA dollar) and when Congress approved the Sacagawea dollar (first minted in 2000) and the presidenti dollar coins (first minted in 2007), they kept that unfortunate size.
If we’re married to that sized dollar coin, as appears to be the case, we should start looking at coins as we do with dollar bills (which are all the same size).
I'd buy that for a dollar.
It costs 30 cents to make a $1 coin, but the Fed purchases it for face value - and the U.S. Treasury pockets the difference. In 2010, the Mint put about 400 million $1 coins into circulation, which means the government made a profit of about $280 million.Interesting idea of what constitutes making a profit.
No, dollar (and half-dollar) coins were very prevalent and staples of collectors long before the Ike dollars. Ike did not “replace” anything, since there were no dollars for some 35 years. Last being the “Peace” SILVER dollar, stopped 1935. The venerable “Morgan” dollars were before that and perpetuated for decades.
There is a VERY long history of Americans using “too big” and “too heavy” and “cumbersome”, “inconvenient” large coins for transactions.
Paper money is recent and as people instinctively knew way back, “worthless”.
We’ve become such sheeple to what the “norm” is for 50+ years that half the FReepers insist they must have worthless bills (which are really just promisory notes) instead of real metal.
The Treasury pockets all of the profits the Fed makes above what is required for salaries.
But then that doesn’t make for really cool conspiracy stories.
The Feds want you off cash.
Absolutely. Hard to track your subject's movements when they pay cash for things.
Is this verified by audit or should we just trust them to do what’s right?
They are subject to Congressional oversight. They work in tandem with the Treasury Department. There is a Board of Governors. Their income statements are publicly released. There is a dedicated group of financial journalists who specialize in analyzing the Fed’s operations. It would be pretty hard for them to keep their larger actions secret.
Here’s an example of a preliminary annual income report that includes the amount returned to the Treasury:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20090109a.htm
“For immediate release
The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced preliminary results that indicate the Reserve Banks recorded payments and provisions for the transfer of approximately $34.9 billion of their estimated 2008 net income of $38.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury, which is comparable to the 2007 results. Under the Board’s policy, the Reserve Banks transferred their remaining estimated 2008 net income to the U.S. Treasury after providing for $1.2 billion in statutory dividends to member banks and $2.7 billion to equate surplus to paid-in capital. The final 2008 results, which will include any valuation adjustments, will be reflected in the Reserve Banks’ annual financial reports and in the Board of Governors’ Annual Report.
The Federal Reserve Banks’ income is derived primarily from interest earned on U.S. government and Federal agency securities that the Banks have acquired through open market operations and on loans extended to depository institutions, primary dealers, and others. The income earned from U.S. government and Federal agency securities amounted to $27.5 billion and the income earned from loans amounted to $7.2 billion in 2008. Additionally, income from reciprocal currency arrangements and investments denominated in foreign currencies totaled $4.2 billion, and income from fees for the provision of priced services to depository institutions totaled $0.8 billion. The remaining income of $0.8 billion is primarily income from securities lending.
Net operating expenses of the twelve Reserve Banks totaled $2.6 billion in 2008. In addition, the interest paid to depository institutions on reserve balances and the cost of earnings credits granted to depository institutions were $0.9 billion. The Reserve Banks were assessed for Board expenditures, including the cost of new currency, totaling $0.9 billion.
Net additions to income were $4.3 billion, with $3.8 billion representing realized gains on sales of U.S. government securities. The remaining income reflects unrealized gains on investments denominated in foreign currencies of $1.3 billion that are revalued to reflect current market exchange rates, which is offset, in part, by interest expense on securities sold under agreements to repurchase of $0.7 billion.
I think part of the problem, is they’re not being used for change at post offices now, because the USPS is switching to cashless debit card stamp machines, and phasing out the machines which gave the dollar coins out as change.
Actually.
Could also explain the lower USPS revenues. Eliminating the stamp vending machines has been a disaster, IMHO.
Make is harder for people to spend money, and they’ll spend less money...
Duh.
You have to admit that without an audit, no real oversight is possible.
“You have to admit that without an audit, no real oversight is possible.”
Not really. Fed financial data gets published weekly. If you follow the bond market you’ll see plenty of it. Barron’s used to have it in each issue, I imagine it still does.
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