So, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the trillion dollar coin idea is an absolute masterpiece of political oiliness matched with economic fiat currency legerdemain.
The idea, in a nutshell (from the above link):
Thanks to an odd loophole in current law, the U.S. Treasury is technically allowed to mint as many coins made of platinum as it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases.
Under this scenario, the U.S. Mint would produce (say) a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins. The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve. The Fed then moves this money into Treasury’s accounts. And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations for the next two years — without needing to issue new debt. The ceiling is no longer an issue.
So, we just magic up a couple trillion dollars from nowhere and start paying our bills with them.
Intellectually, I know that our economy rests on a foundation of sand and blind faith. But do I really need to be reminded of that by idiocy like this? Using a law designed to strike commemorative coins sold on QVC to circumvent an obstreperous Congress is one of the few things that could make people even more disenchanted with our dysfunctional government.
Here, Trilly Trilly Trilly!
In addition to the fact that this could destroy the world’s faith in the American economy, the real danger is that this could lead to another one of those terrible Ocean’s Integer movies. And I don’t want to see Don Cheadle stealing these coins.
“Ocean’s Integer”. Good one.