The $2 Trillion Coin Solution

Comments

I like the idea of floating a barge full of newly minted pennies over to China, but since they cost 1.23 cents each to manufacture, the joke would still be on us.

Dougsf on July 29, 2011 at 4:47 PM

How is it bad news that this won't make it through the Senate?

Quetzal on July 29, 2011 at 4:48 PM

@2, It's bad news that the House couldn't bring itself to pass a viable bill. It's bad news that our political system is so dysfunctional, and the other side so fucking crazy.

Goldy on July 29, 2011 at 4:51 PM

Increasing the money supply doesn't sacrifice anything? Did not know that. Why don't more countries just print money to solve all their problems?

The Wretched Harmony on July 29, 2011 at 4:52 PM

Yeah, inflation is "low" only if you don't have to buy food or fuel or clothing.

laterite on July 29, 2011 at 5:00 PM

@ 2
Goldy has it backwards.
The good news is Boehner's bill has no chance of becoming law. The bad news is it made it through the House.

crazycatguy on July 29, 2011 at 5:07 PM

Heh, just like a junkie doing anything for a fix.

I'm sure the Obama plan will cure everything. Oh wait, Obama doesn't HAVE a plan.

delbert on July 29, 2011 at 5:10 PM

@4, It wouldn't actually dump $2 trillion into circulation overnight, but rather gradually, as the Treasury wrote checks on it. And a few hundred billion here and there in this economy is not about to fuel an inflationary spiral.

Besides, it would only be intended as a stopgap until Congress raised the debt ceiling.

Goldy on July 29, 2011 at 5:10 PM

The last decade of crappy, intellectually vacuous, poorly conceived ideologies, and corporate-funded polarizing politics in the US has been leading to this moment. The average american voter is getting their just deserts - too bad the rest of us are going to suffer along with them.

This is what happens when you base your vote on a 'paid and approved by' commercial on television. We are now hos in service for the Koch brothers. Suck it up folks. This is going to become national equivalent of unpleasant intercourse with an unattractive and unwashed john in a garbage strewn back alley.

robwolf on July 29, 2011 at 5:12 PM

The $2 trillion coin solution isn't exactly breaking news. But I like the 14th amendment solution better. And it has the extra, added benefit that the Supremes wouldn't go there even if you held a gun to their head.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on July 29, 2011 at 5:12 PM

@4, perhaps you ought to gain a basic understanding of how money creation works before spouting off idiocy here. Oh, and every country in the world does, in fact, just print more money, or rather, loan it out through their national banks (in our case, the Fed). that's how value is created.

@7, Obama had a plan, which was rejected. It was, in fact, a deeply conservative, even right-wing, plan; just not right-wing enough for the crazies. Obama's fiscal policy is to the right of every president before him, including Reagan and the Bushes (his domestic policies including health care are to the left of Bush II but to the right of, say, Nixon and Ford).

There's still a Democratic plan -- a deeply conservative one, heavily laden with stupid, hateful spending cuts -- on the table, in the Senate.

And you do not have any idea what you're talking about.

Fnarf on July 29, 2011 at 5:18 PM

"Besides, it would only be intended as a stopgap until Congress raised the debt ceiling."

then after which it must be thrown into the fire pit of Mount Doom in the heart of the black land of Mordor .

pissy mcslogbot on July 29, 2011 at 5:24 PM

Nassty, nassty hobbitses.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on July 29, 2011 at 5:34 PM

Are the Republicans trying to ram a Constitutional amendment through Congress in less than 5 days?
Is that what I'm seeing?

AgentofChaos on July 29, 2011 at 5:36 PM

Actually, Ron Paul actually had a good idea (and I am generally not a huge fan of his). The Fed can forgive about $1.7 trillion of debt that it is owed by the Treasury (essentially money that we owe ourselves) to give us a little breathing room. http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/20…

Of course, that simply puts off the day of reckoning. I don't really believe that DC would solve the problem without a deadline, so we might as well act while the gun is to our head (metaphorically) than do it again down the road and continue the ridiculous distraction from what the government really needs to be doing (does anyone think that there are any jobs programs in the pipeline?)

AndK. on July 29, 2011 at 5:47 PM

@14 sadly, I think that what this debate has devolved into is: which party can bargain and delay and posture to be the very last to throw any sort of legislature at the debt ceiling. Whoever gets the last vote through one of the houses before august 2 can say "if only the other side of the aisle accepted this legislation and voted for it, we would still be able to pay federal employees, send out soc sec checks, etc."

I guess when the overwhelming majority of the country disapproves of both parties in congress, the only strategy left is to appear like the least douchey guy in the room.

devilsmoke on July 29, 2011 at 5:56 PM

BTW, the Senate just voted to table the bill that passed the House this afternoon. Back to the drawing board.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on July 29, 2011 at 6:05 PM

"It only took two hours for the Senate to reject the House bill."

yeah, that is just truly great news, 'cause it was like a golfball sized kidney stone wrapped in 80 grit sandpaper for me to get that sucker passed.
#BoehnersPickledLiver

pissy mcslogbot on July 29, 2011 at 6:06 PM

Then sell one of those coins on eBay. Call it an ultra-ultra-ultra-rare. Someone will pay triple its value for it.

jzimbert on July 29, 2011 at 6:54 PM

Sorry, d00d, even Bill Gates doesn't have $2 trillion - much less 6.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on July 29, 2011 at 7:07 PM

better yet, we could hide a platinum ticket or two in a couple of pack of smokes and the redeemer could get a fun/death ridden tour of the House..."There's no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going / There's no knowing where we're rowing / Or which way the river's flowing.
#BoehnersOompaLoompaJunk

pissy mcslogbot on July 29, 2011 at 7:18 PM

Mr. Burns.. I think we can trust the president of Cuba..

JonnoN on July 29, 2011 at 7:22 PM

Given that this game of chicken will likely continue past the default deadline, my fear now, strangely enough, is that due to restraint and the probable existence of a few bits of hidden short-term ballast/flotation, the markets WON'T go haywire in the next few weeks, which will only embolden the crazies.

rob! on July 29, 2011 at 7:58 PM

@8 @11

Because it's only these two trillion dollar coins. Never to be done again. Promise. Really. Swear. Just two and never again.

If a president said those two trillion dollar coins didn't do any harm, so why not mint ten more of them, everyone would say "No! Give us tax increases and spending cuts! We didn't want them before, but this time will be different."

The Wretched Harmony on July 29, 2011 at 7:58 PM

where is this Presidents plan? (sniffle), i sat across the table from him and didn't ask him then, but in front of your cameras now (weep noise) i do, why hasn't the senate(tears, coming omg) offered up one? why is it only the house(sobz) that need to fix this mess? I love the chances this country gave me to screw over the least among us(heart wrenching wails of pain)
#boehnersoverusedtearducts

pissy mcslogbot on July 29, 2011 at 8:17 PM

@11>@4

The game is to match the money supply with the growth of the economy to preserve the value of dollars.

Unless you don't want to (new businesses need investment, wealth redistribution, ...)

The US in my opinion has a very complex problem of misallocated dollars....printing more may exacerbate the situation.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 29, 2011 at 9:30 PM

@11 - You wish. But even they admit it.

Jay Carney, WH Press Secretary:
"It’s not a plan. No, it’s not a plan. It was details of the plan, but it wasn’t a plan the same way that we’re getting a plan on the House side or that we’re getting a plan on the Senate side. It’s not. We don’t know what the Medicare thing is. We don’t know what the Social Security part of this is. There wasn’t -- I mean, there was a lot of missing detail."

delbert on July 29, 2011 at 9:46 PM

The Republicans scuttled all of Obama's ideas before they could even be a plan. Obama wanted some new revenue as part of any plan, even just a little (1/3 revenue 2/3 cuts is what's been thrown around). The teabag caucus walked away at the mention of any new revenue at all.

Truly, the only legislative option left is a Boehner/Pelosi compromise - a generous Democrat plan that still pulls in a couple dozen sane & scared Republican votes.

I don't see the treasury stepping in and minting the money, no matter how limited. The practice is tainted by locally by the old Confederacy, and nationally by many failed states. It would be a sure-fire way to hurt our credit rating, possibly worse than a straight default.

Lack Thereof on July 29, 2011 at 10:13 PM

The only way to understand all this is that truly, the Republicans don't care about the government defaulting, the economy blowing up, people not getting their Social Security money, interest rates going up, the market going down, anything. They do not care about anything because they want to blame it on Obama and use it next year in the election. The worst case is their best case. Boehner knew damn well the Tea Party people wouldn't go for his plan; that was part of the play they've written. The last act will come in November 2012; we're not even at the intermission yet.

sarah68 on July 29, 2011 at 10:40 PM

do i still have to pay my student loan if we default?

Max Solomon on July 29, 2011 at 11:47 PM

That's an extremely good question, Max. The answer is "yes," of course. But, if you were to default, any enforcement of that would be put on hold until they get their act together.

They can be nasty motherfuckers, though, so I don't recommend that.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on July 30, 2011 at 5:24 AM

oh you girls....
so much sound and fury and bullshit.

here are the salient facts-

40¢ of every dollar the Federal Govt spends is borrowed.

50% of Americans pay ZERO income taxes.

the half of the country that actually pays taxes is sick of the bullshit from the moocher class.
sick.and.tired.

and not going to play anymore.
taking their ball and going home.
cut Social Security.
slash Medicaid.
fire teachers and firemen and social workers.
or, tax the moocher 50%.
your choice.
we.don't.give.a.fuck.

whining about "compromise" is just amusing.

it is a new day.

the times- they are a changing.

you better swim fast or you'll sink like a stone.....

on July 30, 2011 at 11:26 AM

Easy way to adjust the budget in three steps:

1. Click to enable box for "Invert effects on taxes"
2. Grab the slider that says "Adjust budget"
3. Pull it down from 100% to 95%.

Outlays go down 5%, revenues go up 5% in all subcategories. Completely equitable.

tunanator on July 30, 2011 at 1:42 PM

@32: pays zero net income tax != pays no taxes
peculiar use of the enter key coupled with odd condescension != intelligence

venomlash on July 30, 2011 at 10:06 PM

On the Fourteenth Amendment provision:

Section 4 was passed after the Civil War because the framers worried that former Southern rebels returning to Congress would hold the federal debt hostage to extract political concessions on Reconstruction.

"former" --> "self-imagined"
"returning" --> "new to"
"Reconstruction" --> "all hesitant steps toward decency since 1895"

Gerald Fnord on July 31, 2011 at 9:51 AM

In case you're interested, Fnarf has 247 coins in a glass jar by his toaster.

Jubilation T. Cornball on July 31, 2011 at 9:59 PM

Yeah, but I'll bet you forgot to count the quarters he had in his nose.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on August 1, 2011 at 5:52 AM

The $2 Trillion Coin Solution

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