More
Platypuses, the Coin Supporters
In Politico, Jennifer Epstein reports
Jay Carney refused, multiple times, to rule out minting the trillion dollar
platinum coin
In The Economist, G.I. defends
“platinomics”
At The American Prospect, Scott
Lemieux explains
the clear legality of the platinum coin
On The Washington Post, Stephen Stromberg says
don’t mint just one!
From The Washington Post, Neil Irwin concedes
that the idea is “idiotic”, however, he dislikes the alternatives more.
At Daily Kos, Jed Lewison states
the platinum coin may be legally required.
In Examiner, Joshua Hinsdale praises the platinum coin for its ability to prevent a fight over the debt ceiling.
From Huffington Post, Mark Gongloff details the trillion dollar solution.
In Examiner, Joshua Hinsdale praises the platinum coin for its ability to prevent a fight over the debt ceiling.
From Huffington Post, Mark Gongloff details the trillion dollar solution.
Eagles,
the Coin Opponents, Respond
From Mother Jones, Kevin Drum describes
the trillion dollar coin as “horrible, lawless policy”.
In MRC, Julia Seymour criticizes
platinum coin supporters for demanding the invention of a trillion dollar
denomination to stave off spending cuts.
From The Washington Post, Aaron Blake labels
the platinum coin a “nuclear option” and anticipates unpredictable political
fallouts if minted.
Detlev Schlichter discusses the true significance of the trillion dollar coin.
Detlev Schlichter discusses the true significance of the trillion dollar coin.
At The WSJ, Jacob Gershman calls
the platinum coin an unconstitutional solution to the debt ceiling crisis.
In Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan
argues
that on spending, Obama and Co. don’t get it.
CBS News reports
Representative Greg Walden (R-Ore) will introduce legislation making it illegal
to mint the platinum coin.
From IPI, Tom Giovanetti explains the problem with the magic coin.
From IPI, Tom Giovanetti explains the problem with the magic coin.
The Treasury has ruled out minting a $1Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin to by-pass the debt ceiling and the White House has so far declined to invoke he 14th amendment, which leaves a third unconventional proposal still on the table.
ReplyDeleteThe $16.4 trillion national debt is partly an illusion, because the Federal Reserve owns $1.65 trillion of it, which it purchased through its QUANTITATIVE EASING (QE) operations.
In recent years the Fed has been earning about $80 billion a year in interest income from these Treasury holdings and earned $90 billion in 2012, $87 billion of which was simply remitted back to the Treasury.
In other words, this is debt that the Government owes itself! Our children and grandchildren aren’t even involved and they will not be saddled with this debt as long as the Fed holds on to it. This raises the question about why this $1.65 Trillion of Treasury debt held by the Fed should even apply to debt ceiling.
After all, what difference is there between the Treasury issuing debt only to have the Fed buy it back, vs. theTreasury not issuing that debt in the first place?
Is there any good reason why the Treasury and Federal Reserve couldn’t simply wave a magic wand over this $1.65 Trillion of debt held by the Fed and in effect cancel it? This would reduce the outstanding debt to about $14.75 Trillion which is well below the current statutory debt ceiling of $16.394 Trillion.
The trillion dollar platinum coin idea may have gone viral recently but the idea of canceling some portion of national debt held by the Fed can gain traction in part because it finds support from both the left and right ends of the political spectrum. Here is post-Keynesian economist Mike Norman of the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) camp suggesting debt cancellation as a way to defuse the fiscal cliff time bomb.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Meanwhile, at the other end of the political spectrum Ron Paul sees government debt cancelation as a means to bring lasting savings to the federal budget and he was endorsed by Keynesian economist Dean Baker writing in the New Republic in July, 2011. "Ron Paul’s Surprisingly Lucid Solution to the Debt Ceiling Impasse"
http://www.tnr.com/article/pol...
There are also these articles which appeared more recently ( mid-Oct ) in the FT blog and Seeking Alpha....
http://blogs.ft.com/gavyndavie...
http://seekingalpha.com/articl......
The debt cancellation idea and the platinum coin idea are really two sides of the same coin... so to speak. Either alternative makes the debt ceiling dilemma go away temporarily while buying Congress about a year or so of valuable breathing space to formulate sensible pro-growrth economic policy rather than causing a self inflicted wound on the economy and millions of American workers and businesses.
Mr. Bernanke, if you seek transparency and accountability for the Fed…. If you seek prosperity for the American people then come to Congress and tell our law makers that the Treasury debt held by the Fed should not apply to the debt ceiling. Mr. Bernanke TEAR UP THIS DEBT!
The Treasury has ruled out minting a $1Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin to by-pass the debt ceiling and the White House has so far declined to invoke he 14th amendment, which leaves a third unconventional proposal still on the table.
ReplyDeleteThe $16.4 trillion national debt is partly an illusion, because the Federal Reserve owns $1.65 trillion of it, which it purchased through its QUANTITATIVE EASING (QE) operations.
In recent years the Fed has been earning about $80 billion a year in interest income from these Treasury holdings and earned $90 billion in 2012, $87 billion of which was simply remitted back to the Treasury.
In other words, this is debt that the Government owes itself! Our children and grandchildren aren’t even involved and they will not be saddled with this debt as long as the Fed holds on to it. This raises the question about why this $1.65 Trillion of Treasury debt held by the Fed should even apply to debt ceiling.
After all, what difference is there between the Treasury issuing debt only to have the Fed buy it back, vs. theTreasury not issuing that debt in the first place?
Is there any good reason why the Treasury and Federal Reserve couldn’t simply wave a magic wand over this $1.65 Trillion of debt held by the Fed and in effect cancel it? This would reduce the outstanding debt to about $14.75 Trillion which is well below the current statutory debt ceiling of $16.394 Trillion.
The trillion dollar platinum coin idea may have gone viral recently but the idea of canceling some portion of national debt held by the Fed can gain traction in part because it finds support from both the left and right ends of the political spectrum. Here is post-Keynesian economist Mike Norman of the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) camp suggesting debt cancellation as a way to defuse the fiscal cliff time bomb.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Meanwhile, at the other end of the political spectrum Ron Paul sees government debt cancelation as a means to bring lasting savings to the federal budget and he was endorsed by Keynesian economist Dean Baker writing in the New Republic in July, 2011. "Ron Paul’s Surprisingly Lucid Solution to the Debt Ceiling Impasse"
http://www.tnr.com/article/pol...
There are also these articles which appeared more recently ( mid-Oct ) in the FT blog and Seeking Alpha....
http://blogs.ft.com/gavyndavie...
http://seekingalpha.com/articl......
The debt cancellation idea and the platinum coin idea are really two sides of the same coin... so to speak. Either alternative makes the debt ceiling dilemma go away temporarily while buying Congress about a year or so of valuable breathing space to formulate sensible pro-growrth economic policy rather than causing a self inflicted wound on the economy and millions of American workers and businesses.
Mr. Bernanke, if you seek transparency and accountability for the Fed…. If you seek prosperity for the American people then come to Congress and tell our law makers that the Treasury debt held by the Fed should not apply to the debt ceiling. Mr. Bernanke TEAR UP THIS DEBT!