[ExI] a good laugh

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> 
Subject: a good laugh

 

from Krugman's column

 


>… one possible way out would be to exploit an apparent legal loophole by minting a  <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/newsletter/b4dtI5rwAikyBwQmgGZipg~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRjQwZkP0TwaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyMS8xMC8wMS9vcGluaW9uL2JpZGVuLWNvaW4tZGVtb2NyYXQtcmVwdWJsaWNhbi1kZWJ0LWxpbWl0Lmh0bWw_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9MTE2JmVtYz1lZGl0X3BrXzIwMjExMDA4Jmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTQyNDAxJm5sPXBhdWwta3J1Z21hbiZyZWdpX2lkPTY0MTU5Nzc2JnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9NzEwNjAmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPTVlNzExMzliNzlhYjE0MzNkMDc3MTBkOGY4ODM1NmM4VwNueXRCCmFfZIFgYT_hCG1SE2Zvb3psZXI4M0BnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAA~> platinum coin with a huge face value, say $1 trillion, depositing that coin in an account at the Fed, then drawing on that account to pay the government’s bills

 

bill w

 

Cool, why didn’t we do this a long time ago?

But platinum is relatively rare, and if they are using up several grams of the stuff every time they need a trillion dollars, why not substitute some other more common material, such as copper or steel?

If a multi-trillion dollar spending bill can be covered by minting a few copper or steel coins, why don’t we use a roll of those to pay the national debt?  Then we can use a couple a year to replace taxes, add a couple more and carry the US budget.  And if spending doesn’t add to the national debt, we don’t need to increase the borrowing limit.

But this is all US politics.  Please if anyone outside the US has any comments to make, you may feel free to post me offlist.  I don’t want us getting in trouble with ExiMod.  

Brits and Italians, what does it look like from your perspective?  Why didn’t Britain ever come up with the idea of just minting a trillion pound coin?  Even Zimbabwe figured out this very simple answer to runaway debt: mint the mighty quadringentillion dollar note:



Then sell the quads to American tourists and gag-gift buyers for 3 bucks.

I learned that a quadingentillion is (1000)^400 or 10^1203.

spike

 

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