Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Liberal commentators, in one of their loopier ideas, argue that the Obama administration can escape the looming confrontation with the Republican House over the debt ceiling by minting a $1 trillion platinum coin. If he were to adopt this course, President Obama would only prove that, as Alexander Hamilton once described the country under the Articles of Confederation, "We may indeed with propriety be said to have reached almost the last stage of national humiliation." (Federalist No. 15).
Why? We will have reached the sad state of the Chinese at the turn of the last century, when they built a giant stone boat on the grounds of the summer palace in 1893. The Chinese legislature voted money to rebuild the navy, but the Dowager Empress opposed a modern navy, so she used the funds to build a vessel -- out of stone.
Like the stone boat, a $1 trillion coin may look like money, and may taste like money if you bite it, but it isn't a real asset -- it is fictional. It may even be as heavy as the Chinese stone boat, but the giant platinum coin will do as much to put our fiscal house in order as the boat helped China's national security.
True, there is a federal law that delegates to the Treasury Secretary the power to coin money. But simply having the giant coin doesn't mean that the money can be spent. Congress must appropriate funds before the money can leave the treasury and reach the hands of private citizens -- under President Reagan, in fact, liberals criticized the Iran-Contra diversion of funds because funds of the United States were transferred without congressional permission. You could declare a dog the equivalent of $1 trillion worth of legal tender, but it wouldn't matter unless Congress let the dog out of the Treasury in an appropriation.
Once again, liberal understanding of economics seems to be equivalent to alchemy.
- Comment (15)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (7)
Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Q: How are Democratic Party economics ideas like South Park?
A: The Simpsons did it first.
Apr '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Misthiocracy: Q: How are Democratic Party economics ideas like South Park?
A: The Simpsons did it first. · 1 minute ago
Haha! I was just thinking the same thing.
Aug '10
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
C. U. Douglas
Misthiocracy: Q: How are Democratic Party economics ideas like South Park?
A: The Simpsons did it first.
Haha! I was just thinking the same thing.
So you claim.
;-)
Mar '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Why Stop There? I Support the $1 Quadrillion Coin
Apr '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Misthiocracy
C. U. Douglas
Misthiocracy: Q: How are Democratic Party economics ideas like South Park?
A: The Simpsons did it first.
Haha! I was just thinking the same thing.
So youclaim.
;-) · 9 minutes ago
The burden of proof is upon you to prove otherwise, sir!
The fact that the Democrats and their supporters are now touting ideas that could easily be the plot of a cartoon episode reveals just what fools they are.
And we, the Americans, voted for these nimnals. To quote the great philosopher, Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Who's more the fool: The fool or the one who follows him?"
Mar '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Quadrillion? Hah! I laugh at your small thinking!
We should mint a sextillion dollar coin. That is a million times better than a mere quadrillion dollar coin, and a billion times better than a $1T Krugmanrand.
We could go for a septillion dollar coin, which would be a trillion times better than a trillion dollar coin, but that would be silly.
Jul '10
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Yes, because We All know it worked out so well for Zimbabwe.
Jan '12
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
That's interesting. Zambia has just reissued it's currency and knocked off three zeros to make it more manageable (It was 5 to the US$ on Jan 1). Even though the old currency was so debased it had some stability. So much so that large sections of Zim and DRC (Congo) use it as a surrogate currency!!
Mar '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
I was just pondering the efficacy of building a Large Wooden Badger, but stone boat is a good second....
May '12
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Much like our present currency?
Aug '10
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Percival
Quadrillion? Hah! I laugh at your small thinking!
We should mint a sextillion dollar coin. That is a million times better than a mere quadrillion dollar coin, and a billion times better than a $1T Krugmanrand.
We could go for a septillion dollar coin, which would be a trillion times better than a trillion dollar coin, but that would be silly.
The conservative movement will get nowhere with such small-minded thinking.
The googolplex dollar coin.
You're welcome.
Mar '11
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Misthiocracy
Percival
Quadrillion? Hah! I laugh at your small thinking!
We should mint a sextillion dollar coin. That is a million times better than a mere quadrillion dollar coin, and a billion times better than a $1T Krugmanrand.
We could go for a septillion dollar coin, which would be a trillion times better than a trillion dollar coin, but that would be silly.
The conservative movement will get nowhere with such small-minded thinking.
The googolplex dollar coin.
You're welcome. · 41 minutes ago
How embarrassing. I now blush over my earlier timid proposal.
Nov '10
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Used this on another blog...
It would have to be a very heavy coin. If it were 40,296,583 lbs, it would be okay.
No one got the joke -- they must be mathematically challenged.
Dec '12
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
On a more serious note, Congress has already appropriated the spending in the form of mandatory entitlement spending. The debt ceiling is not about how much we can spend, it is how much we can borrow. The liberals are saying that minting a trillion dollar coin is not borrowing - it is coining money.
It is all a bit silly. The US government doesn't have a bank account, except at the Federal Reserve. The Treasury can write all the checks it likes. As long as the Federal Reserve honors those checks drawn on the US Treasury and credits the bank accounts of the people who deposit the checks we won't cause a default. Of course this is just printing money, but that is what is going to have to happen anyway.
The real danger now of the debt ceiling not being raised is that the markets will realize the fiction that is the dollar.
Mar '12
Re: Liberalism's Giant Stone Boat
Stephen Bishop: That's interesting. Zambia has just reissued it's currency and knocked off three zeros to make it more manageable (It was 5 to the US$ on Jan 1). Even though the old currency was so debased it had some stability. So much so that large sections of Zim and DRC (Congo) use it as a surrogate currency!! · 17 hours ago
I personally would not like to have three zeros "knocked off" my bank account. I doubt that those closer to retirement would be any more appreciative.