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Can Trillion Dollar Coins Save the Economy?

Any Ideas as to why the demo's have not passed a budget in over 4 years now?
Well there is this.

Democrats' budget bill: $1.1 trillion; 1,900 pages - David Rogers - POLITICO.com

That is effectively a budget, or at least a significant functional part of it, from a hair over 2 years ago. The GOP are in a growly, dickhead mood. Have been for…oh, 4+ years now. Since they got majority in the House (start of 2011) they have managed to screw up sabotage the process with to even greater effect. So, to answer your question in shorter form;

“The passive-aggressively children [in the red shirts], the ones crying that there has been no budget.”
 
Well there is this.

Democrats' budget bill: $1.1 trillion; 1,900 pages - David Rogers - POLITICO.com

That is effectively a budget, or at least a significant functional part of it, from a hair over 2 years ago. The GOP are in a growly, dickhead mood. Have been for…oh, 4+ years now. Since they got majority in the House (start of 2011) they have managed to screw up sabotage the process with to even greater effect. So, to answer your question in shorter form;

“The passive-aggressively children [in the red shirts], the ones crying that there has been no budget.”
And they'd better read all 1.9K pages on the floor of the house. Every word.
 
And they'd better read all 1.9K pages on the floor of the house. Every word.
On the house floor! Because the Constitution says to do it that way!**


** No, not really. But I have found that the overlap between people that insist on gimmickry like orating every single word of a bill on the floor, and people that have a very hard time reading the Constitution (or at least believe silly things they are told are in there) have a curiously high overlap.
:lamo :lamo
 
Well there is this.

Democrats' budget bill: $1.1 trillion; 1,900 pages - David Rogers - POLITICO.com

That is effectively a budget, or at least a significant functional part of it, from a hair over 2 years ago. The GOP are in a growly, dickhead mood. Have been for…oh, 4+ years now. Since they got majority in the House (start of 2011) they have managed to screw up sabotage the process with to even greater effect. So, to answer your question in shorter form;

“The passive-aggressively children [in the red shirts], the ones crying that there has been no budget.”


Good to see that Politico continues with the expected 'carrying the water' for the Obama administration and demo's...House republicans have repeatedly sent up budgets over the years only to have Reid refuse to even bring up the process. The President has submitted a couple of "budgets" that were shot down unanimously by the senate, the most recent being 97-0. And you bring up a stunt that Senate demo's tried to pull before they lost the house in '10? That is really laughable.
 
What that article leaves out is that it what the GOP brought to the floor wasn’t a ‘budget’ in the sense. It was only the top line numbers, roughly 2000 pages short of an actual Congressional budget (it was only about 50 pages long).

In short a trap, a gimmick, a GOP election campaign stunt to sell as a “historic rejection of a sitting President”, roughly speaking a shuck and jive that would make P.T. Barnum proud. But certainly one that they have gotten a LOT of mileage out of, sucking in rubes like you. *shrug*

Why did Obama introduce it then?

Why hasn't there been any budget at all or any interest in that direction?

Obama could have promised a budget during his next four years but that will never happen either. All sorts of records are being broken with this President, and none of them positive.
 
On the house floor! Because the Constitution says to do it that way!**


** No, not really. But I have found that the overlap between people that insist on gimmickry like orating every single word of a bill on the floor, and people that have a very hard time reading the Constitution (or at least believe silly things they are told are in there) have a curiously high overlap.
:lamo :lamo

So, the constitution doesn't matter?
 
Does anyone realize that a "trillion dollar platinum coin" would be about 39,000,000 pounds? :lamo On a serious note, are we to now believe that progressives are putting stock in non fiat currency?

It seems that the contents of the new coin is not important. We'll just pretend it's value is $1,000,000,000,000.

Playing "Let's Pretend" seems to be a popular game these days.
 
To mint two $1T coins using market value amounts of gold would require, roughly, 20% of all the gold ever mined.

P.S. That is a fundamental problem that people urging a return to the gold standard do not, I think, realize. The world has simply outgrown gold.

EDIT: Incidentally I am not certain if $2T worth of platinum has been mined, in total?

In a sense, yes, but it's possible to limit growth to within a measure of the value of owned commodities (like gold, which has maintained its purchasing power for thousands of years. Why not a combination of gold, silver, platinum, etc? If that's not enough, then make it a percentage value backing the currency in use.

The problem is that 1's and 0's backing your currency is dependent on a level of trust, and any computerized system can be compromised (in many of the same types of ways that currencies are manipulated today).

You are probably right about the lack of mineral to make the coin that has a trillion dollar value... Almost definitely the 2T$.
 
I was gona do some fancy math and see how big the platinum coin would have to be in order to be worth a $1T but it turns out that Platinum is worth slightly less than gold: Live Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium Quote Spot Price Chart - Kitco

Platinum, and even palladium, is the wrong material. I think the President is looking for a $1T coin made of Unobtainium.

This what you were thinking of?

wRih4.png
 
"Ya load 16 trill and whadaya get..."

The Dems have a new theme song.
 
On the house floor! Because the Constitution says to do it that way!**


** No, not really. But I have found that the overlap between people that insist on gimmickry like orating every single word of a bill on the floor, and people that have a very hard time reading the Constitution (or at least believe silly things they are told are in there) have a curiously high overlap.
:lamo :lamo
...and the politicians who say you have to pass the bill in order to see what's in the bill....
 
In a sense, yes, but it's possible to limit growth to within a measure of the value of owned commodities (like gold, which has maintained its purchasing power for thousands of years. Why not a combination of gold, silver, platinum, etc? If that’s not enough, then make it a percentage value backing the currency in use.
It is not going to be enough (certainly not with out creating an extreme distortion in the economy, because of trying to fit 10 pounds of mud back in a 5 pound sack…with that sack now having other important uses that it did not before).

Then, using a percentage value, you start losing what you [supposedly] had as a positive in using precious metals. Actual backing.

Note that I say supposedly because gold is the original fiat currency (well not the original one, but an old one and from the beginning one). Gold’s value was rooted in fabricated, social conventions. Ironically that is not as true anymore, because of its use in things like electronics (which is something that makes its use as a currency problematic). But historically it was largely the case.

As for 1’s and 0’s, there is more than that backing currency. Yes, there is trust involved. But forgery is not particularly more (or less) difficult now than in times past, as it is an ongoing arms race of means and testing with a good deal of interest in advance both ends of that. :)

Further, there is truly backing for paper money/digital money. Of course it is subject to bombs blowing up that backing and other issues. But if our paper money really goes entirely to hell in a hand basket we’ll have bigger issues to worry about. Not the least of which is the economic drag of not having these great tools that help our economy run as smoothly and as it does.
 
...and the politicians who say you have to pass the bill in order to see what's in the bill....
A remarkably dumb string of words to put together in front of a camera, to be pulled out of context. *shrug* However, the reality is not exactly what it is usually made out to be. The passing in question was NOT final passage but the means to get to the proposed final draft of the bill which still required a vote over acceptance or not.

Put into that context, it does show how byzantine and quirky the process of government is at times. ((Something that orating full texts of bills for every vote would only add to.)) But clearly not what it is generally sold as.
 
This what you were thinking of?

wRih4.png

Now that is an amazing large heap of BS. Where did you get that from, what is this “Zero Hedge” source, and are they really peddlers of such misinformation or did someone hijack their name?

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/myb1-2010-plati.pdf

Yearly global sales of Pt to industry total around 300t. US domestic mining, alone, in only 2009 was 16t.

EDIT: Oh, is that this http://www.zerohedge.com ? Well a quick perusal suggests that if someone inappropriately attributed them as the source, at least they can not have done any meaningful damage to Zero Hedge’s reputation as a reliable source. :lol: :peace
 
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Now that is an amazing large heap of BS. Where did you get that from, what is this “Zero Hedge” source, and are they really peddlers of such misinformation or did someone hijack their name?

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/myb1-2010-plati.pdf

Yearly global sales of Pt to industry total around 300t. US domestic mining, alone, in only 2009 was 16t.

EDIT: Oh, is that this Zero Hedge | On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero ? Well a quick perusal suggests that if someone inappropriately attributed them as the source, at least they can not have done any meaningful damage to Zero Hedge’s reputation as a reliable source. :lol: :peace

Looks like it was a typo in the source they quoted (which correctly lists the annual production at 130 tonnes/year): Interesting Facts about Platinum

I guess I should have vetted the graphic better before sharing it. Woops.
 
If my math is right, a $1T platinum coin would have to weigh almost 20,000 tons to be worth it's face value at today's spot-market price.
 
A remarkably dumb string of words to put together in front of a camera, to be pulled out of context. *shrug* However, the reality is not exactly what it is usually made out to be. The passing in question was NOT final passage but the means to get to the proposed final draft of the bill which still required a vote over acceptance or not.

Put into that context, it does show how byzantine and quirky the process of government is at times. ((Something that orating full texts of bills for every vote would only add to.)) But clearly not what it is generally sold as.
BTW, the tl;dr version of that link, for those that are not big on reading. The members did (or at least had the opportunity) to know exactly what the text was they were voting on. The “to find out what is in the bill” part comes from the US Constitution stipulated 2 separate Legislature bodies, with each able to amend what the other passes round-and-round until they have both passed a vote on the same wording of the bill.
 
Why do you need your job?
Lol...the logic from the left.

Massive, out of control spending is what threatens my job and part of what has perpetuated the miserable economic conditions.

The new liberal meme seems to
be more dependence, more spending equals a recovery.


Its the best you guys can do. which is to say you failed.
 
The platinum in the trillion dollar coin does not have to equal the value of the platinum contained in it. It could weigh one ounce with a face value of $1 trillion. To be sure there are problems using the platinum coin "solution" but failure to raise the debt ceiling has equal perhaps more problems associated with it. The $16 trillion in debt was created by Congress and to not raise it is not only stupid but refusing to take responsibility for their actions. If we want to have a discussion about the budget deficits and the merits of closing them by increasing taxes/cutting spending (austerity) then we can have it, but to hold our economy hostage for the debt they created is insane.
 
Lol...the logic from the left.

Massive, out of control spending is what threatens my job and part of what has perpetuated the miserable economic conditions.

The new liberal meme seems to
be more dependence, more spending equals a recovery.


Its the best you guys can do. which is to say you failed.

A default on our debt is what threatens everyones job. How are we going to reduce the deficit if we are all out of work?
 
Sure!

Here's the plan: We make the coin REALLY huge, and then roll it over to all the people we owe money to and crush them underneath its' weight!

Problem solved!
 
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