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[Some presumably facetious
buzz about resolving the debt ceiling issue by minting a $1 trillion dollar
coin then depositing it in the US
treasury.]
KRUGMAN: MINT THE COIN – Paul
Krugman in a blog post: "Should President Obama be willing to print a $1
trillion platinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes,
absolutely. He will, after all, be faced with a choice between two alternatives:
one that's silly but benign, the other that's equally silly but both vile and
disastrous. ... Yes, it was intended to allow commemorative collector's items -
but that's not what the letter of the law says. And by minting a $1 trillion
coin, then depositing it at the Fed, the Treasury could acquire enough cash to
sidestep the debt ceiling - while doing no economic harm at all. ... So if the
14th Amendment solution - simply declaring that the debt ceiling is
unconstitutional - isn't workable, go with the coin."
Read full article here:
^^^
SALMON: THERE WILL BE NO
COIN – Reuters's Felix Salmon: "Let's be clear about this: no one's
going to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin. Nor is anybody going to mint a
million $1 million platinum coins. But it would probably be stupid for anybody
in the government to say that they're not going to do it. ... Everybody who's
ever been in charge of any country's finances knows that the concept of a debt
ceiling is profoundly stupid, self-defeating, and generally idiotic. ... It's
important to recognize just how damaging the platinum coin move would be, all
the same.
"It would effectively
mark the demise of the three-branch system of government, by allowing the
executive branch to simply steamroller the rights and privileges of the
legislative branch. Yes, the legislature is behaving like a bunch of utter
morons if they think that driving the U.S. government into default is a
good idea. But it's their right to behave like a bunch of utter morons. If the
executive branch failed to respect that right, it would effectively be defying
the exact same authority by which the president himself governs."
Read full article here:
***
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