If a picture is worth a thousand words

[pappy]

Can a coin be worth a trillion dollars? Apparently the answer is yes. Yes it can!

Everyone scoffed at the idea of minting a platinum coin with a denomination of one trillion dollars and depositing it with the Federal Reserve to circumvent the threat by congressional Republicans over the debt limit.

Well now the idea is getting support from some heavy hitters and the White House hasn't ruled it out (which of course is not the same thing as suggesting they like the idea).

Here is how Think Progress and Pat Garofalo are reporting the story;

Quote:With Congressional Republicans once again threatening to take the nation’s debt limit hostage for spending cuts, economic circles have been abuzz with the possibility that a standoff could be averted via use of a $1 trillion platinum coin. An obscure law, read literally, gives the Treasury Secretary the ability to mint platinum coins of any denomination. Deposited with the Federal Reserve, such a coin would give the federal government the ability to make payments without needing to issue more debt, defusing the possibility of a default due to the debt ceiling.

The idea has won the endorsement of Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, a former head of the U.S. Mint, and Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe. “Should President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillion platinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely,” Krugman wrote.

When confronted in a press briefing about the idea Jay Carney didn't exactly rule it out and in fact seemed to deliberately avoid answering the question directly.



All I can say is that if they do mint a coin worth one trillion dollars I'm going to start watching my change more closely and I have to admit that every time I type the phrase "one trillion dollars" I hear the voice of Dr. Evil in my head.

[azmouse]

Someone joked that if the treasury put Reagan's picture on the coin then the Republicans would go along with the idea.