Platinum coin enters the main stream

... but still!

Apparently, neither Letsgetitdone nor Corrente is to have any credit...

That must be a terrible feeling! How can you stand it?
:o)

Sure, Beowolf may have been the smartest person around and the first to propose this solution (and seriously, that is very, very cool Beowolf, bravo!), but I was the first one to propose a picture of Ronald Fucking Reagan on it. How could the Republicans be against such a magnanimous bipartisan gesture? The largest currency denomination ever made, or ever will be made, bearing The Gipper's likeness?

The fact it would be most useful in undermining their entire construct of "running the government like a business" and usher in an era where is just icing on the cake. Butter on the toast. On the flip side, it's all about priorities, and the fed already spends as much as it wants to on anything it wants to. Mainly though, they want to spend money on wars, killing people, drug wars, bank bailouts, kleptocracy, etc., not full employment programs, education, health care, old people, children, sick people, etc., so not exactly sure changing the numbers will change the equation.

Basically, this society is in the process of a bust-out, if there is more money to squieeze out of the corpse, they will squeeze it out until nothing is left.

... I think the larger point is that we have a nifty little ecosystem here that really helped to successfully propagate a wild idea from the outer edges into the mainstream.

So, congratulations to everyone....

DCB, I was over at Mike Norman's this morning, and saw the little piece by Tom Hickey linking to this post. before hitting the link, I made this comment there:

"Thanks Tom for a little credit here, and for calling attention to the conspicuous absence of any mention of my blogging in Matty's post.

Could it be because of the title of this Post:
"Why Matt Yglesias and Felix Salmon are Wrong About A Legal Way to Circumvent the Debt Ceiling Impasse" at NC: ?

So, thanks DCB for being the original source of that credit.

Btw, Carlos (beowulf) has a new one on the coin and the debt ceiling at MMR today, where I've commented, though my comment hasn't appeared yet because I'm under moderation there: http://monetaryrealism.com/coin-of-desti...

Whether or not my comment appears there, I'll probably post it here soon. But I've been working on the final piece in my FS counter-narrative series, so it will have to wait for that.

However, I think, from a public relations standpoint, it's the actual, physical coin that's the stumbling block, just because it's so easy to ridicule. And ridiculing The Powers That Be can only be bad!

So I think a key piece of the puzzle is to invent some way of obfuscating the actual solution. Which should be easy, since that's what the FIRE sector and the legacy parties are good at; in fact, it's their entire raison d'etre.

Perhaps something like "Coin Seignorage Warrants" (CSWs). (I'm just making up the name; I don't even know what a warrant is.)

Then the Powers That Be could pay off the debt with CSWs, which are a promise to mint the proof platinum coin should that ever become necessary, instead of actually minting it. No need for mintage or for the promise to ever be fulfilled, since the banks are sound, like, totally.

Lambert of course brings up the main problem for the MOTU. As always, it's the optics. A "coin" is easy to make fun of (as I imply above), plus it goes hand in glove with the "printing/minting money" meme. So that is what they are primarily concerned with, the optics. Nothing new.

But say they get over that hurdle, what then? Does anyone here honestly think that getting rid of the "debt ceiling" problem is going to actually lead to restoration of food stamps cuts, a renewed CCC or WPA program, increased stimulus through infrastructure spending, universal health care? This is a process argument, not a policy one. They spend whatever they want to spend on wars and war machines and use the "debt" argument to cut everything else, but if they didn't have the "debt" argument, they would merely find another. Maybe "inflation" fear. Who knows.

I guess I'm pessimistic and cynical and expect that if they discover another tool to loot, they will use it to loot until that tool for looting (MMT in this case) has exhausted its utility.

Coin seignorage and MMT are agnostic.