{"id":118192,"date":"2021-10-06T14:48:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T18:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=118192"},"modified":"2021-10-06T14:48:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T18:48:33","slug":"fixing-the-federal-debt-problem-just-mint-a-1-trillion-coin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=118192","title":{"rendered":"Fixing the federal debt problem. Just mint a $1 trillion coin!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Life is once again imitating art. There are those in D.C. right now who seriously think that the solution to our national debt issues is to just make more money. Well, we can’t print a trillion dollar bill like Truman did on The Simpsons (pictured), but apparently it would be legal to mint a trillion dollar coin if it’s made out of platinum. This would require no Congressional approval, which is how the president most likes to institute changes.<\/p>\n

The AP wire sends out<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Token of all tokens: Could a $1T coin fix the debt limit?<\/h3>\n

Some politicians think they\u2019ve found a silver bullet for the impasse over the debt limit, except the bullet is made of platinum: Mint a $1 trillion coin, token of all tokens, and use it to flood the treasury with cash and drive Republicans crazy.<\/p>\n

Even its serious proponents \u2014 who are not that many \u2014 call it a gimmick. They say it is an oddball way out of an oddball accounting problem that will have severe consequences to average people\u2019s pocketbooks and the economy if it is not worked out in coming days.<\/p>\n

But despite all the jokes about who should go on the face of the coin \u2014 Chuck E. Cheese? Donald Trump, to tempt or taunt the GOP? \u2014 there\u2019s scholarship behind it, too. However improbable, it is conceivable the government could turn $1 trillion into a coin of the realm without lawmakers having a say.<\/p>\n

How is this possible when the treasury secretary can\u2019t simply print money to pay public debts? It\u2019s because a quirky law from more than 20 years ago seems to allow the administration to mint coins of any denomination without congressional approval as long as they\u2019re platinum.<\/p>\n

The intent was to help with the production of commemorative coins for collectors, not to create a nuclear option in a fiscal crisis. Oops.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the law says the treasury secretary \u201cmay mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary\u2019s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is that time, in the view of coin advocates. But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the White House and some Democrats slapped down the idea Tuesday, just as past leaders have done when the going got tough and radical quick-fixes emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing kookier would be a politically inflicted default,\u201d Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va, said of the coin.<\/p>\n

Said Yellen, \u201cWhat\u2019s necessary is for Congress to show that the world can count on America paying its debt.\u201d A platinum coin, she told CNBC, \u201cis really a gimmick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure it is, said Rohan Grey, a Willamette University law professor and expert on fiscal policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that (the coin) represents an accounting gimmick is a source of its strength, rather than a weakness,\u201d Grey wrote in a 2020-21 study in the Kentucky Law Journal. \u201cThe idea of \u2018fighting an accounting problem with an accounting solution\u2019 is entirely coherent … the debt ceiling itself can be viewed as one big, poorly designed accounting gimmick.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More at the source. Now, I will just mint my own coin and go pay off my mortgage. It’s a gimmick, true, but if this is the federal government’s solution, then it’s good enough for this guy.<\/p>\n

Now go watch Season 09, Episode 20 of the The Simpsons. The episode is titled “The Trouble with Trillions” and is one of the most brilliant of the classic Simpsons episodes. It’s got jokes about tax fraud, government surveillance, communism, Castro Street, and cataracts and even features a Stutz Bearcat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is once again imitating art. There are those in D.C. right now who seriously think … Fixing the federal debt problem. Just mint a $1 trillion coin!<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,213,89,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-congress-sucks","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118194,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118192\/revisions\/118194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}