Tag Archives: debt ceiling crisis

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part V

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Joe Firestone | Comments Off

This is Part V, and the conclusion, of the series providing my reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my evaluation of his views on the platinum coin proposal and other options for settling debt ceiling conflicts. In Part I I discussed some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, Brookings Institution, Conservatism, consols, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Mike Castle, Philip A. Wallach, Philip N. Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Political legitimacy, Trillion Dollar Coin, weirdness

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part IV

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 5 comments

This is Part IV of my reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my evaluation of his views on the platinum coin proposal and other options for settling debt ceiling conflicts. In Part I I discussed some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model.

In Part II I continued with a discussion of political legitimacy and usurpation issues and then covered some legal objections to using the $100 T platinum coin option related to the “intent” of the coin law. In Part III I discussed a legal objection based on Wallach’s view of the intent of the coin law, which quickly morphed into a political objection about the desirability of mutual respect and comity among the three branches of government, as well as the threat to political legitimacy arising from the judgment that the platinum coin option is really “weird.”

In this, Part IV, I’ll continue discussing the “weirdness” objection, and also cover Wallach’s views on Inflation and hyper-inflation, and Modern Money Theory. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Mike Castle, Philip A. Wallach, Philip N. Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Political legitimacy, Trillion Dollar Coin, weirdness

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part III

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 13 comments

This is Part III of my lengthy reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my evaluation of his views on the platinum coin proposal and other options for settling debt ceiling conflicts. In Part I I discussed some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model. In Part II I continued with a discussion of political legitimacy and usurpation issues and then covered some legal objections to using the $100 T platinum coin option related to the “intent” of the coin law.

In this installment I’ll continue with more discussion of political objections. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, beowulf, Brookings Institution, Carlos Mucha, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Mike Castle, Philip A. Wallach, Philip N. Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part II

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 17 comments

I began a lengthy critical reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my earlier analysis of his paper in Part I of this series. There I covered some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model. In this Part II, I’ll cover some conjectures about political legitimacy Wallach offers about the consequences of minting a $100 T, some legal legitimacy issues, and some additional political legitimacy issues. Continue reading →

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Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part I

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 10 comments

As I was working my way through the series of posts beginning with this one, news was announced that Republican and Democratic Party leaders in Congress, along with the President had come to agreement on the terms of ending the debt ceiling standoff in the context of a new budget deal. Their agreement provides for suspension of the debt ceiling until March of 2017; so the immediate need to turn to unusual solutions to a pending debt ceiling crisis is now gone, and, along with it, crisis-driven discussions about the platinum coin option.

Nevertheless, even though the immediate reason motivating renewed discussions of the platinum coin option is now gone, I still have some unfinished business dealing with the issues surrounding it. Late last week I replied to a paper from Philip Wallach of The Brookings Institution with a post at Naked Capitalism, as well as a number of other sites in the blogosphere. Now, Wallach has replied to my post, which mostly presents new arguments not in his original paper.

These are important to answer for the record, since platinum coin options and debt ceiling issues are likely to return again in the future, especially if we still have divided government in 2017, a very good possibility, I think. Answering them is also important, however, because they are the kinds of arguments that will be offered by the mainstream neoliberals against using the $100 T platinum coin, as well as the trillion dollar version. This series, of which this post is Part I, will present a detailed reply to Wallach’s new paper. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Philip A. Wallach, platinum coin seigniorage, sectoral financial balances model, SFB model, Trillion Dollar Coin

The Platinum Coin Returns

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 22 comments

Upon my oath, I didn’t intend to bring back the coin proposal until much later in the renewed process of Republican hostage-taking over the debt ceiling. After all, there’s not much chance that the President would ever use the platinum coin option, because his budget policy direction of getting ever closer to a budget surplus, is best served by a “forced” compromise with the Republicans, that results in another few hundred billion in spending cuts for 2016, while allowing him to place the blame on them for that outcome. Using the platinum coin option would not have that result, because it would deliver a clear victory to him.

Of course, he doesn’t want a default due to Republican brinksmanship either, so if the Republicans do drag everyone too close to the cliff, then he may decide to take some extraordinary measures and the coin is one that is available, so it’s conceivable that he might choose this undoubtedly, from his point of view, distasteful option. It is for this reason, I suppose, that the Brookings Institution is warning him off the coin to weight his choice towards some more conventional approach. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Philip A. Wallach, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

What Now?

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 61 comments

By Joe Firestone

Today, John Boehner bowed to the inevitable logic of the impending political season and placed a “clean” debt ceiling increase bill on the floor of the House. At this writing, the bill passed with 28 Republican and 193 Democratic votes. Now it moves on to the Senate, where it is expected to pass in time to allow the Treasury to keep issuing debt instruments.

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Tagged #PCS, $60 T coin, 2014 elections, debt ceiling crisis, democrats, Green Party, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, platinum coin seigniorage, republicans, US Mint

Does the Debt Ceiling Have to Be Raised?

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 9 comments

By Joe Firestone

Lately, the word out of Washington, DC from the plugged in people is that there will be no debt ceiling crisis coming up before the election. Politico says so, and so does the National Journal. MSNBC also agrees.
But not so fast, says the Washington Post, echoing the Wall Street Journal provided the House Republicans can agree on “. . . an extortion demand.” If they can, then we wll have another debt ceiling crisis.

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Tagged CAF, Center for American Future, consols, Dave Johnson, debt ceiling crisis, Jack Lew, platinum coin seigniorage, Politico, republicans

What Happens Now?

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 19 comments

In the aftermath of the great 2013 government shutdown/debt ceiling crisis, and the kicking of the can down the road while maintaining austerity once more, the subject on many minds is where do negotiations over fiscal policy go from here? Will the new “budget committee” produce more austerity and do a grand bargain including the “chained CPI”? Will Congress finally turn towards economic growth and job creation, or will we continue to have more shutdowns and debt ceiling crises in 2014?

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Tagged Alex Wagner, austerity, budget committee, chained CPI, debt ceiling, debt ceiling crisis, entitlements, Government shutdown, grand bargain, Greg Walden, Harry Reid, Joan McCarter, Nancy Pelosi, Patty Murray, paul ryan, President Obama, Richard Eskow, sectoral financial balances model, sequester, SFB, Social Security, tea party, The Long Depression

No Plan B?

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

By Joe Firestone

Bob Woodward’s releasing a new book, so we are now seeing articles based on it. A few days back, The Washington Post published the “Inside story of Obama’s struggle to keep Congress from controlling outcome of debt ceiling crisis.” This account is a pretty downbeat one of how our political leaders and President Obama handled the debt ceiling crisis of the summer of 2011. I want to comment on what for me was the most salient point: that during the crisis, the President had no “Plan B” to get around the debt ceiling beyond negotiating a deal with Congress.

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