 Dealbook screengrab |
To back up for a moment, in case you're not familiar with the #MintTheCoin movement, the idea is that by using a technical loophole in the law, the Treasury could create a coin worth $1 trillion and deposit it in its bank account.
In a new post up titled Be Ready To Mint The Coin he writes:
It’s easy to make sententious remarks to the effect that we shouldn’t look for gimmicks, we should sit down like serious people and deal with our problems realistically. That may sound reasonable — if you’ve been living in a cave for the past four years.Given the realities of our political situation, and in particular the mixture of ruthlessness and craziness that now characterizes House Republicans, it’s just ridiculous — far more ridiculous than the notion of the coin.
This really is the crux of tha matter right here. Pretty much everyone slamming the #MintTheCoin movement for being unserious is not aware of how ridiculous things have gotten, where people are actually having a debate about whether we should default on our obligations. That we'd do anything that veers towards a default is far more silly than this idea.
As for whose face goes on it, Krugman says it's obvious:
This still leaves the question of whose face goes on the coin — but that’s easy: John Boehner. Because without him and his colleagues, this wouldn’t be necessary.
Greg Sargent at The Washington Post has a good interview with former NYPD hostage negotiator Scott Wagner, which explains why the platinum coin is so necessary.
His advice: Obama must have a trump card in his back pocket that will resolve the situation without the GOP’s help, if necessary. One of the most important goals is getting the hostage taker to realize that ultimately, he’s not in control of the situation.
There are two possible trump cards for Obama. One is the “platinum coin” option, in which the government mints a trillion-dollar coin and uses it to pay its debts, which is currently getting a lot of blogospheric love. (Josh Barro explains how this might work; Kevin Drum dissents.) There’s also the 14th Amendment option, which some legal observers believe empowers the President to ignore the debt ceiling.
Meanwhile on Bloomberg TV this morning, Josh Barro and I were on discussing the idea.
SEE ALSO: 3 big myths about minting a trillion dollar coin >