Just Two Coins...Our Doom Approaches

In a perfectly serious article in the Washington Post, it was actually suggested that minting just two coins could solve our present fiscal crisis. Yep, easy, peasy.

Through a odd bit of tradition, created to allow the Treasury to mint commemorative coins, there is no limit to the number of platinum coins the Treasury can mint, nor their value. Terrific... Just mint two coins each worth one trillion dollars, transfer it into the Federal Reserve accounts... Presto changeo, fiscal cliff averted! An extra two trillion to spend! The author quotes Josheph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics as saying "there is nothing that’s obviously economically problematic about it".

You don't have to be an economist to know that printing (or coining) money like that will just devalue the dollar and drive inflation insanely up. The absolute childishness of the suggestion leaves me breathless.    The author does mention the political ramifications, , and other minor inconveniences, but really, can anyone seriously contemplate this idea? Evidently, yes.  Dear God, we are doomed!

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