The Trillion Dollar Coins That Could Save America

The Trillion Dollar Coins That Could Save America

gawker.com

Looking across the vast debt ceiling hellscape today, it appears that Speaker John Boehner will finally, finally get House Republicans to pass his two-tiered debt limit hike by tossing in modest balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. Let's just say that that doesn't improve the chances of getting out of this pickle with a bipartisan solution, with only four days remaining. What is to be done, instead? Just have Timmy Geithner mint a trillion dollar coin, obviously.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Yale law professor Jack Balkin explains:

Sovereign governments such as the United States can print new money. However, there's a statutory limit to the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation at any one time.

Ironically, there's no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.

The most expensive coins in the history of the earth. Its an interesting idea and some people are claiming It would prevent the global economy from immediate total collapse. Would this really help in the long term and would it be less painful than raising the debt celing?

Also just would be the design on the coin? Maybe another pyramid with an eye ontop just like the 1 Dollar note?

gawker.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

WOW. If my household goes into debt, instead of cutting back and working harder, wish I could just print up some money.

I don't think it would be saving America so much as just delaying what will happen because the government has refused to address the issues that put us in this situation in the first place. If we don't address the wildly out of control spending these coins would just delay another debt ceiling incident when the money they generated ran out not to mention how is suddenly injecting 2 trillion dollars into the financial system going to impact the overall value of the Dollar?

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Must be nice to just print money to pay off debt.....wish I could do that.

These people are idiots! They are bickering like children and they are in charge of our economic future?

I hope this thing gets resolved because out of everything out there this one makes me worry the most.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Kinda of scary how childlike they're acting huh?
I mean seriously.
When I read and hear these morons are younger then me, I can't believe I actually thought at one time in my life,anyone in public office HAD to be smarter and more well rounded then me.
Better schooling,better educated..they HAD to have more brains then me because they're an elected official to represent a cross section of ALL of us I thought.

Who's fricking dumber now? I'm still as dumb..they're dumber.

Un BEIEVABLE Wait.. thy have a pension and better healthcare then me for life now.

OK...I'm dumbest.

Right. We lose pallets of $100 bills in the Middle East, and now a trillion dollar coin. I can see Bernake now, "I had it in my pocket just a minute ago, everyone look around on the floor. It was about this big ..."

Problem is we need to get rid of all the lawyers in DC and replace them with economists, house-wives and people who will spend a term in DC with no pay. then get a new group in each term.

We need to stop interfering in other countries, whether it be by publicly condemning another country or handing out money to any interest outside the borders of the US or to any inside interest that doles out money overseas. any money going outside the country should only be done by private business and there should be oversight to ensure that there are not businesses getting involved overseas in activities that could be considered as questionable. A Prime Directive for the 21st century if you will.

For those who get public assistance, find jobs for them to receive those benefits. have them do the jobs that illegal immigrants do such as picking lettuce and oranges. sorry folks for those who will say slavery, but there is no free ride in this world. if physically unable to perform tasks like those, stand at airports and check boarding passes and IDs to allow people into the screening lines. there are plenty that welfare recipients can do. it's just that someone has to have enough backbone to quit handing out "get out of work" passes. very few disabilities keep someone from doing some kind of public task. you will see costs gradually decrease in certain sectors of the economy. these tasks should only be those that are considered for the public welfare that most people do not want to do because of low pay or they are simply low paying government jobs.

is this the best idea american govt comes up ,print trillion dollar notes? this is pathetic ....

Our nuclear bombs are worth atleast a cool Quadrillion.

They can end life on this planet. Accept our currency or else.

Is this really what some people consider a viable solution?

Really?

If there was ever any doubt about the legitimacy of monetary systems it is now gone: The whole thing is artificial, it always has been and now it's broken.

If the solution to the problem can be as arbitrary as this then why not just call for a reset of the whole system? Why bother even trying to present an arguement that this idea is anything more than a massive scam?

I mean come on...this is from The Simpson's folks.

...didn't work there either.

Looks like good ole USA will be ending up like Zimbabwe and printing Billion Dollars bills

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

This kinda sounds like more fiat currency. Doesn't platinum have a set albeit slightly fluid value? Why don't we do the same thing with gold and silver? Why don't we just take twp granite stones one inch in circumference and say they are each worth two trillion each?

Here's an idea lets not spend more than we have.

reply to post by Pervius


and russia can survive and win a nuke war....

next...

sounds like an accounting gimmick to me!!
but well, we could take care of about a billion of it here....
www.npr.org...
and save us a million or so in the process...
can we at least give them these, they seem to be more of a pain than they are worth anyways!!!

god, how can a gov't be so stupid that they seemingly believe we are at the door of financial catastrophe, and not be looking around and finding crap like this and immediately stopping it in it's tracks....but, taking time out of their oh so busy schedules to tell us that they might not be paying the troops and granny!!!
they coins are so unwanted, they have to build a new vault to store them all in, they are still minting a million of them a day, and I am sure that is costing money!!! and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't read of something just as stupid that they are doing!!! god, stop bickering about the stupid deficit cap, raise the danged thing if you want, and then start going through the expenses line by line, and cutting this stupid crap out!! who knows, you might find enough to make another rise in the cap unnecessary!! maybe even find a little money to use to start paying some of it off!!!

reply to post by macman


Same here. Better yet, I think I'll go into the spark plug scavenging business as it would appear that platinum would then be worth a trillion per ounce

Cool, pretty soon you'll need one of those to buy a Big Mac.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


the so called deficit exists only on the set of books that we the people are allowed to see
meanwhile there is another set of books CAFR which reveals income based on investments these paragons of corruption and GREED made using the peoples taxes.



www.cafr1.com...

www.project.nsearch.com...

CAFRs: The Biggest Secret $60 trillion invested by US government www.abovetopsecret.com...

The One Thing they will not discuss, CAFR www.abovetopsecret.com...

NYC (just the city)is siting on 2.2 trillion Dollars of investment capital (liquid assets, stocks bonds etc)
the US-gov is sitting on 64 trillion Dollars of investment capital (liquid assets, stocks bonds etc)

whats the debt 14 trillion? that leaves more than 50 trillion left over.

divide that by the current population....

find the CAFR for your state follow the methodology provided by the links or get an accountant to do it for you.
word of warning when confronted with this , the SOP is the big ignore [and be assured you will be escorted off the premises by security] and some states are now hiding their CAFR offline so...

the point is all this deficit crap is just another puppet show for the masses like the war on terror, this "we've got no money to pay for that" is like your mom saying "i've got no money for that piece of candy you want"

but at least mom means well, even when she's being cheap



www.cafr1.com...

takes you to an index with some of the pdfs, though it seems with all the trouble mr burien is experienceing lately
he hasn't been updating the site in awhile also googling can find them if they haven't been taken offline.

also these things are accounting statements so just find an accountant friend to come up with total amount.
or follow the instructions given here: cafr-school-a-lesson-in-financial-accounting

more links: www.iff-ifoundfreedom.com...
very detailed and informative interview with Walter Burien:

[POST NOTE FROM WJB: In 1999, GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) changed the policy for showing revenue on the combined financial columns of the CAFR. Prior to 1999, it was required to show all income, investments, & revenue. The change starting in 1999, was now on the combined financial columns of the CAFR, it was required to show all income, investments, & revenue necessary to meet obligations of that local government. A big difference! It is important to get back issues to see what now does not show as of 1999 forward. The notes in the CAFR must be looked at closely for direction to other accounting reports whose revenue is not shown in the report you are examining.]

Now, I mentioned earlier, a Web site to get CAFRs downloaded: it's financenet.gov ... www.financenet.gov... Go to that site, & you'll be able to download some of your Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. You will also, instead of putting cafr.htm at the end, if you put "reports.htm" you will also get other financial reports available.

www.financenet.gov...

Now, the game here has been played, regarding the obfuscation of the wealth, boils down to nondisclosure. The reports are available for viewing. The game was not making those reports not available; the game was "Don't discuss, don't talk, don't mention. If you don't know, you can't take effective action." So, request the report. [Require your local paper or politician to make continuous & open mention of the CAFRs]

Also, the news media, request that they make simple & conspicuous mention. There is no reason whatsoever for them not to do so except confirming their criminal culpability in nondisclosure. Any politician running for office - the governor, the congressmen, the senator, & the dogcatcher - I don't care. Any person running for public office - the sheriff - if he refuses to make simple & conspicuous mention of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from the podium, the platform, or in public forum, throw his materials in the garbage can & immediately look to another candidate. If that person running for office refuses to make simple & conspicuous mention of' the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report they are confirming their cooperation with the nondisclosure. They have ... they do not have your interests at heart, they only have their own. They want to become part of the inner circle & perpetuate the game. They're not for your ... they're not for your interests, or your family's or your children's.


Government has been getting into every aspect of taking money. The public's familiar with taxation, taxation is actually turning into a very small portion of government's take. Investment funds are their primary vehicle for revenue generation at this point in time, taxation's secondary. You have to start tracking down these investment funds. The next time you hear, "Well, we're going to have to shut the school down, it's got holes in its roof, we need to raise taxes for a million dollars," or "the police are under funded, we're gonna have to let half of 'em go," pop up with "Oh, by the way, they said they had to shut down the school, well, I see they have $42 million here in the local government investment pool. Why are you not using this?"
Now, Jesse Ventura, when he was mayor of... a... I think it was Menlo [Brooklyn] Park, the city wanted to have a tax increase of $260,000, a small increase, for the school districts. They said they were at a short fall of money. He looked & saw a $48 million investment fund sitting there, listed as idle funds, so he goes, "Here, take it from here". And he was the first person to openly admit as to the difference between the budgetary basis & the liquid investment funds. He was elected governor, & also the first step he did was to target $7 billion in surplus funds for return to the public. Now, legislature, ok, who has their hands very deep in the pockets here, went to block him on the $7 billion & he was only able to free up about $1.8 billion, which equated to about a $800 check for every person living in the state.

i keep posting this on these ZOMG we're out of money threads
but keep getting ignored...

sorta like when this subject is brought up to a politician.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


I've heard this before, and have tried to look into it for myself....
I think it's a bit complicated, and in reality, defies what many people believe!! or maybe it just defies our logic.
but, I walked away wondering if it's right or not...
if I remember right, I kept running into city and state pension funds being listed on it....
and well, unless you want to get rid of the sanctity of contracts, the money should be consider off hands, like the social security money should have been!! and well, if you want to throw out the sanctity of the contracts, why couldn't we do that for those other contracts called mortgages and save us this big headache to begin with??

there was unused real estate I believe listed also, but well, we're poor at the moment, maybe instead of building brand spankind new buildings for govenrment to use, we should be utilizing these buildings???
it's interesting, but well, it's complicated, and therefore, I can't determine how accurate it is....

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


damn lawyers running this country what do people expect
i love how every body knows lawyers are snakes but call him a politician and they dont mind
hell just give me what i paid into ss i will be in south east asia next week