Tag Archives: debt ceiling

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Six, More Political/Economic Objections

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the five previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Five, Institutional Objections

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

By Joe Firestone

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the four previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Ezra Klein, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, John Lounsbury, MMT, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin, warren mosler

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Four, Political/Economic Objections

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Devin Smith | 13 comments

By Joe Firestone

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the three previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC.

Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, Black Swans, debt ceiling, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Three, Political Objections

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By Joe Firestone

As I pointed out in Part Two of this series, there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time eventually building up to a TDC.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Ezra kelin, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Two, Legal Objections

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

By Joe Firestone

There are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all PCS of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Dorf On Law, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, Philip Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part One, Basics

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Devin Smith | 58 comments

By Joe Firestone

How many times have you heard that the Government can only spend money after it raises revenue by either taxing or borrowing? Nearly every time someone talks or writes about the US’s public deficit/debt problem? How come nobody asks why, since Congress has the unlimited authority to create coins and currency, it doesn’t just create money when it deficit spends? The short answer is that Congress in 1913, constrained the Executive Branch from creating currency or bank reserves, delegated its power to do that to the Federal Reserve System, and never looked back when we went off the gold standard in 1971, even though this removed the danger of money-creation outrunning gold reserves, and also created a new monetary system based on fiat currency.

Continue reading →

58 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, austerity, Cullen Roche, debt ceiling, Fiscal Policy, game-changing PCS, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Obama commits Unilateral Disarmament as a Debt Ceiling Negotiator

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Devin Smith | 23 comments

By William K. Black

President Obama is getting ready to negotiate (or if you believe him, not negotiate) an extension of the debt limit. The Republicans control the House and are promising to follow Donald Trump’s suggestion that they use what he called the “nuclear weapon” to terrorize the U.S. economy and people in order to gain negotiating leverage over Obama. That act of treachery was designed to produce two other acts of betrayal of the American people. First, Trump’s urged the Republicans to use their “nuclear weapon” to force Obama to inflict austerity on our Nation and force us back into recession. Second, Trump urged the Republicans to use their leverage to force Obama to gut the safety net. It is somehow fitting that Trump’s advice to act in unprincipled manner was designed to produce policies that would enrich the wealthy and cause immense harm to the Nation.

Continue reading →

23 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, debt ceiling, debt limit, grand bargain, great betrayal

The Political Economy of the Coin and the Debt Ceiling

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By Matthew Berg

A fateful Saturday in January

On Saturday afternoon, the White House ruled out using platinum coin seignorage as a way to defuse the political crisis caused by Congressional Republicans’ unwillingness to raise the debt ceiling. In the words of press secretary Jay Carney:

“There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default.”

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Guest Blogger

Tagged #TDC, coin seigniorage, debt ceiling, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, sequestration

Public Debt, Debt Ceiling and Monetary Sovereignty: Some Accounting Realities

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Devin Smith | 45 comments

By Eric Tymoigne

The public debt is the outstanding U.S. Treasury securities (USTS). It includes both marketable (T-bills, T-notes, T-bonds, TIPSs, and a few others) and non-marketable securities (United States notes, Gold certificates, U.S. savings bonds, Treasury demand deposits issued to States and Local Gov., all sorts of government account series securities held by Deposit Funds). What are the means to reduce the public debt? Continue reading →

45 Comments

Posted in Eric Tymoigne

Tagged debt ceiling, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, monetary sovereignty, public debt

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 →