The Trillion Dollar Coin

[Midtowner]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/trillion-dollar-coin-solution_n_2426333.html?1357595941&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009


If you've watched business TV or read Paul Krugman lately, you may have stumbled across a strange and maybe frightening debate among policy wonks and pundits about something called a trillion-dollar coin.

What is this coin, and why should you care about it? The second part of that question is harder to answer, but the first part is easily explained. It's a gimmick that, as Krugman wrote on Monday, President Obama could and possibly should threaten to use as a solution to a potentially devastating fight with Congress over the debt ceiling. Here's how it--

The gist of the article is that the administration under a current law which allows the Dept. of Treasury to mint platinum coins of any denomination (so the treasury could raise money with novelty coins). Under this law, the Treasury could simply mint a trillion dollar platinum coin, carry it over to the federal reserve and deposit it.

No one knows exactly what happens after that except that it's legal tender....

[Bourbon St Sooner]

This is a great idea. I think Jerry Sandusky should be on the coin.

[FaninAma]

NO, only the king of monopoly money, Ben Bernanke, is worthy of having his face on that coin.

[okie52]

This is a great idea. I think Jerry Sandusky should be on the coin.

LoL.

Krugman ought to put his own face on a $25,000,000,000,000 coin.

[SoonerorLater]

They're just never going to do the right thing up there are they? Our politicians will make one stupid play after another to avoid a day of reckoning. This has to be the one of the silliest proposals ever. The thing is it wouldn't surprise me for these guys to try something like this.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

NO, only the king of monopoly money, Ben Bernanke, is worthy of having his face on that coin.

Bernanke in his helicopter dropping money from the sky would be appropriate. But I think a guy that screws children seems more appropriate since we are screwing future generations.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

And the fact that Krugman is pimping this idea proves that he's no longer a serious economist but nothing more than a partisan hack. Of course, I'm not sure if he was ever a serious economist in the first place.

[FaninAma]

Bernanke in his helicopter dropping money from the sky would be appropriate. But I think a guy that screws children seems more appropriate since we are screwing future generations.

I see the logic. Maybe Sandusky can be the "tails" side of the coin.

[Curly Bill]

If they make one I just hope they lose it and I find it! Bill Gates get out the way!

[okie52]

I see the logic. Maybe Snadusky can be the "tails" side of the coin.

I would think the American public would be the tails.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I see the logic. Maybe Snadusky can be the "tails" side of the coin.

Heh. Brilliant!

[badger]

So... any bets as to where the trillion "coin" ends up? My bet is on Cuba:
X2KXzoXhhZE

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Probably in the toilet since that's where the dollar's headed.

[yermom]

And the fact that Krugman is pimping this idea proves that he's no longer a serious economist but nothing more than a partisan hack. Of course, I'm not sure if he was ever a serious economist in the first place.

he's pimping it as a negotiation tactic if the pubs get stubborn on the debt ceiling, so they know it's an option.

[KantoSooner]

Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize for Economics. Paul Krugman thinks this is something worth talking about. Paul Krugman thinks that the government can somehow spend us out of recession and debt.

What does this tell you about Paul Krugman and the Nobel Selection Committee?

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I know why he's pimping it. Because he's a partisan hack who thinks we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity. He's an idealogical purist who refuses to consider the limitations on the Keynesian multiplier effect in such a high debt environment despite the piling empirical evidence.

[yermom]

what evidence would that be?

http://www.businessinsider.com/imf-admitted-their-economists-were-wrong-2013-1


Here in the U.S., a similar recent study was done by the research arm of the U.S. Congress. That study covered only the U.S. economy, and it focused like a laser on only U.S. economic history. The specific question it examined was whether economic growth has been spurred in the United States by cutting taxes for the rich and introducing austerity for the nation-as-a-whole by the Federal Government, or whether such economic policies have failed to generate economic growth in this country.
It found that they have failed.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

Cutting taxes for the rich would supposedly lead to a keynesian multiplier effect according to the classes I took. So that study says Keynes is full of ****.

[yermom]

to be fair, i haven't taken any classes on economics, but i've yet to see trickle down tax cuts for the rich turn into anything other than widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots

[Bourbon St Sooner]

To be fair, I haven't advocated for tax cuts for the rich or anybody else. And I didn't vote for Romney, which is probably what that CBO study was directed at. I think we need full on austerity and to get our fiscal house in order. Only then, do I believe that we can fully restore business confidence.

[StoopTroup]

Put Tower One on one side and Tower Two on the other.

[East Coast Bias]

I am on-board if it will keep the pubs from playing the debt-ceiling card, once a month..

[okie52]

I am on-board if it will keep the pubs from playing the debt-ceiling card, once a month..

You do know that senator Obama had no problem playing that card?

[cleller]

Obama won't put up with that debt crap, that is a definite sign of failure of leadership.

[okie52]

Obama won't put up with that debt crap, that is a definite sign of failure of leadership.

Heh heh....ain't it though.

[MR2-Sooner86]

****ing Keynesian bastards.

[East Coast Bias]

You do know that senator Obama had no problem playing that card?
You do know the lines are drawn on this, right? The Pubs have already promised to obstruct and Obama has claimed there will be no compromise. Grover is putting out the idea of a monthly or weekly debt-ceiling fight.
Bottom line is they will wait until the last minute and probably down-grade our credit again. Congress needs to get some nuts and do their job-legislate....

[okie52]

You do know the lines are drawn on this, right? The Pubs have already promised to obstruct and Obama has claimed there will be no compromise. Grover is putting out the idea of a monthly or weekly debt-ceiling fight.
Bottom line is they will wait until the last minute and probably down-grade our credit again. Congress needs to get some nuts and do their job-legislate....

The lines have been drawn for quite some time. The pubs want spending cuts and the dems don't want to give them. As I said, Senator Obama had no problem voting against raising the debt ceiling as it was an example of "failed leadership". Now he says he won't even debate the issue as president. Another "evolution" for Obama?

[soonercruiser]

Obama on the one side of a $20 Trillion coin would be appropriate?
The rear could be on the rear!

[sappstuf]

You do know the lines are drawn on this, right? The Pubs have already promised to obstruct and Obama has claimed there will be no compromise. Grover is putting out the idea of a monthly or weekly debt-ceiling fight.
Bottom line is they will wait until the last minute and probably down-grade our credit again. Congress needs to get some nuts and do their job-legislate....

We could raise the debt ceiling to $100 trillion tomorrow. We would still get downgraded because we spend too much.

[Harry Beanbag]

Brilliant idea! Just make twenty of these things and.......POOF!!!!11!1! We have a multi trillion dollar surplus! Why didn't they think of this before?

[cleller]

Fits with his ideas of creating wealth thru government.

[soonercruiser]

I am on-board if it will keep the pubs from playing the debt-ceiling card, once a month..

And the Dems and Left can't use the race card, hate the poor card, or war against women card at least once a week!
:apple:

[East Coast Bias]

The lines have been drawn for quite some time. The pubs want spending cuts and the dems don't want to give them. As I said, Senator Obama had no problem voting against raising the debt ceiling as it was an example of "failed leadership". Now he says he won't even debate the issue as president. Another "evolution" for Obama?

Look, I was disappointed no cuts came out of the whole fiscal cliff debate, but I think we can make cuts without holding the country's credit rating hostage. There are plenty of fiscal know it all's here that might offer clarification, but isn't the debt ceiling just a means to pay what we have already spent?
The strategy here varies from austerity to government spending but why do we have to drag our credit rating into the mix? How did that work out last time?