Tag Archives: Trillion Dollar Coin

Downsides to the Platinum Coin; or Just Defense of the Status Quo?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Devin Smith | 34 comments

As part of a wonderful discussion thread on the legal basis for using Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS), following a post by beowulf (Carlos Mucha), the first to propose the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC). Michael Sankowski, one of the founders of the Monetary Realism approach to economics offered a very long reply directed at High Value Platinum Coin Seignorage (HVPCS), and the TDC itself. Mike’s reply is a good example of the many misgivings people have about using PCS with face values in the trillions. Since Mike is a supporter, rather than opponent of PCS and believes that PCS is legal, I thought it would be worthwhile to deconstruct his long comment and show that his downsides are pretty speculative and don’t provide good grounds for supporting incrementalism is using PCS.

Continue reading →

34 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged $60 T coin, austerity, Fiscal Policy, HVPCS, incrementalism, Mike Sankowski, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Monetary Realism, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Beowulf and Diehl Embrace Trillion Dollar Coin Incrementalism!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Devin Smith | 30 comments

By Joe Firestone

A wonderful discussion thread has been going on at Monetary Realism (MR) after a very good new post by beowulf (Carlos Mucha), who first brought forward the proposal for the Executive Branch to use the authority provided in the 1996 Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) legislation to fill the public purse, on whether the Fed had a legal basis for turning down PCS in the form of the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC). I’ll leave the legal discussion for another blog post, since I agree with beo on these, and also need to review some legal arguments against the TDC by some George Washington University Professors. Here I want to write about some of the MR discussion relating to PCS options.

Continue reading →

30 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged $60 T coin, austerity, beowulf, Carlos Mucha, Fiscal Policy, HVCS, HVPCS, incrementalism, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Philip Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Good Luck Stopping Austerity With Incremental Platinum Coin Seigniorage!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Devin Smith | 144 comments

By Joe Firestone

Some have responded to the recent boomlet for using Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) as a solution to the debt ceiling problem, by reacting to the ridicule visited upon PCS advocates by know-nothings like Heidi Moore of the Guardian and Matt O’Brien of the Atlantic, by proposing “smaller ball” PCS than the clearly inadequate Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) itself. This post will focus on J. D. Alt’s interesting post which makes five points about the TDC debate as it was addressed on a recent Chris Hayes show.

Continue reading →

144 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged $60 T coin, austerity, Fiscal Policy, HVPCS, incrementalism, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

MMT and Social Norms

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 125 comments

By J. D. Alt

Chris Hayes’ recent MSNBC show on the Trillion Dollar Coin brought four aspects of the Modern Money debate, for me at least, into a clearer focus. I list them here not in their order of appearance on the show, but in their order of importance and logical connection.

Continue reading →

125 Comments

Posted in J. D. Alt

Tagged MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, resource constraints, Trillion Dollar Coin

The Great Austerity Swindle!

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By Joe Firestone

Our Congresspeople, corporate CEOs, tea partiers, most economists, Pete Peterson’s minions, and even our President, tell us that we’re running out of money; and that if we can’t keep running huge deficits, and increasing our national debt forever, because eventually, our creditors will just cease lending us our dollars back.

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #mintthehvpcs, $60 T coin, austerity, Fiscal Policy, grand bargain, great betrayal, HVPCS, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

The Bright Shiny Object of Change

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Devin Smith | 28 comments

By Joel David Palmer

Did you feel it? The earth moved under our feet a little bit over the past week. I’m feeling quite grateful to beowolf and Joe Firestone and everyone else who laid the foundation for Mint The Coin, and to Stephanie Kelton (for creating) and Joe Weisenthal (for popularizing) the #MintTheCoin hashtag and circulating the White House petition.

Continue reading →

28 Comments

Posted in Joel David Palmer

Tagged #MintTheCoin, #TDC, Trillion Dollar Coin

Ezra Klein Chooses Fear Mongering the Big Coin, I Choose Ending Austerity!

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 29 comments

By Joe Firestone
(H/t to Lambert Strether for the title!)

Here’s a commentary on Ezra Klein’s recent diatribe against Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS).

But there’s nothing benign about the platinum coin. It is a breakdown in the American system of governance, a symbol that we have become a banana republic. And perhaps we have. But the platinum coin is not the first cousin of cleanly raising the debt ceiling. It is the first cousin of defaulting on our debts. As with true default, it proves to the financial markets that we can no longer be trusted to manage our economic affairs predictably and rationally. It’s evidence that American politics has transitioned from dysfunctional to broken and that all manner of once-ludicrous outcomes have muscled their way into the realm of possibility. As with default, it will mean our borrowing costs rise and financial markets gradually lose trust in our system, though perhaps not with the disruptive panic that default would bring.

Continue reading →

29 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, austerity, beowulf, debt ceiling, debt-subject-to-the-limit, Ezra Klein, Fiscal Policy, game-changing PCS, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Philip Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, small ball PCS, Trillion Dollar Coin

Wake Up Progressives: the Trillion Dollar Coin Can Be Game-Changing!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Devin Smith | 35 comments

By Joe Firestone

Well, not really. But if you view the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) meme, as I do, as a short-hand for the more general idea of using Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS), then yes, it can change the whole political game for progressives if President Obama dares to use it.

Literal TDC proposals would solve the debt-ceiling, but they won’t solve the larger problem of defeating the austerity politics that is so close to getting the cuts to social safety net and important discretionary government programs that austerians have long sought. PCS game-changer proposals are the ones calling for, or analyzing the impact of, PCS options aimed at paying off the national debt and covering anticipated federal deficit spending for some years. Continue reading →

35 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, austerity, debt ceiling, debt-subject-to-the-limit, fiscal cliff, Fiscal Policy, game-changing PCS, krugman, Linkins, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, O'Brien, platinum coin seigniorage, small ball PCS, Trillion Dollar Coin, Wiesenthal

The Small Ball Trillion Dollar Coin Seigniorage Exception

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Devin Smith | 22 comments

By Joe Firestone

The exception to the general pattern focusing on the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) as the solution to the debt ceiling problem I outlined and critiqued in my last post, is in Joe Wiesenthal ‘s posts here and here. Wiesenthal alone criticizes, rather than ignores, other options than the TDC, namely the $16 T and $100 T options, on grounds that they are no more effective at meeting the debt ceiling crisis than the TDC. He says that the issue is not a lack money but the debt ceiling law, and also that if a coin that large were minted and used to pay back the debt, then the result would be inflation or hyperinflation because of the flow of the large quantity of reserves into the economy, and the ensuing great expansion in the money supply. Continue reading →

22 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #60Tcoin, #PCS, #TDC, debt ceiling, debt-subject-to-the-limit, Fed, game-changing PCS, inflation, Joe Wiesenthal, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Scott Fullwiler, small ball PCS, Trillion Dollar Coin

Wake Up Progressives: The Bad Guys Are Trying To Steal the Trillion Dollar Coin to Save the Financial Status Quo!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Devin Smith | 29 comments

By Joe Firestone

Among the many posts on the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) and Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) we’re seeing this week, is a category of posts favoring using PCS in a limited way to avoid the debt ceiling crisis, rather than using it in a much more robust way, that would change the procedures underlying Federal spending, so that fiscal policies advocating austerity no longer have a political foundation in a visible and rising national debt that austerity advocates can constantly talk about fixing through “shared sacrifice.” Continue reading →