The trillion dollar coin idea may sound crazy, but there are some real arguments in favor of it.
In a nutshell, the idea is to screw the Republicans who are trying to use the debt ceiling debate (again) as leverage to force Obama to cut Social Security, or Medicaid, or something else that actually helps people, because Republicans like nothing more than spitting on the poor and less fortunate. It screws them by creating a new coin, with a denomination of $1 trillion dollars, depositing it in the U.S. Government’s bank account, and then borrowing against that. Voila, no more debt ceiling.
Money – It’s Worth Whatever We Say It’s Worth
It would be doubly humorous, because the bill that allows it was introduced by Republican Mike Castle of Delaware back in the ’90s, as a Franklin Mint type of thing, so the government could raise a little spare cash selling commemorative coins. A fairly harmless, non-partisan gesture which passed easily. A couple other interesting points about Castle: he was also the guy responsible for the quarters from all 50 states, so his career was basically marked by nonsensical, symbolic gestures, and he lost his seat in a Republican primary to Christine (I am not a witch) O’Donnell.
As Romneycare became Obamacare, so Castle’s coin collectors campaign could become a tactic that lets Obama bypass the assholes in congress and start getting things done.
Of course, detractors are already screaming that this is fantasy economics, that merely printing more money is no way to solve the underlying problems, that it’s merely currency manipulation, and they’ve got a point.
But the whole economy of the human race is about currency manipulation. It has very little to do with wealth and production.
We are living on an incredibly wealthy planet. Food literally (and I use the word literally in the most literal sense of the word) grows up out of the ground and falls down from the trees. The planet is made out of stone, there is easily enough to build every living human being a home – a really nice home, as a matter of fact. We have a massive energy generator, 100s of times the size of the planet, beaming down fresh waves of energy every second of every day, and we have a level of technology that’s higher than it’s ever been in human history and which is growing exponentially, not to mention by leaps and bounds.
The current economic crisis, and all economic crises, are man made. So, why the hell shouldn’t we mint a trillion dollar coin?
I suppose it might be inflationary and, as much as I’d like to see Obama use it to bypass congress, a future Republican president could also use it to bypass congress, with a much less honorable agenda, so maybe it’s not a good idea to set precedent.
So, there are pluses and minuses. I don’t actually think it will happen, though-not Obama’s style. Too theatrical.
He will continue to compromise with Republicans and pretend that they are normal, decent human beings and things will trundle along, sucking, forever. That’s just the way it goes.
p.s. one thing I think is super cool about the trillion dollar coin idea is that it did not originate in congress, or in the White House, but in the comments section over at Fire Dog Lake, by some commenter called Beowulf. That doesn’t make it a good idea, or a bad idea, but at least it shows that there is another source for ideas, that grassroots are actually starting to take root, that there may be hope for democracy after all.
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