Holy S%#@

[Warph]

This debt thingy is a bitch.  When you're this far down the rabbit-hole, who's to say which ideas are crazy and which are serious?  If Congress fails to get there act together when it comes to America's debt and get back to a AAA+ rating with S&P, one crazy tack Obuma could take is to simply blow everything out of the water and tell Congress to go to hell and  declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.  It'd be politically contentious, it'd set all sorts of dicey executive-power precedents, and the markets might judge it harshly like they are doing with S&P's decision.  I don't know but from what I read, plenty of legal types think the White House clowns and goofy Obuma could get away with it.  But failing that, Obuma is crazy enough to solve the crisis with a pair of platinum coins.  

Sure, that sounds preposterous, but here's the logic:

Under law, there's a limit to how much paper money the United States can circulate at any one time, and there are rules that limit how many gold, silver and copper coins the Treasury can mint.  But the Treasury is explicitly allowed to mint however many platinum coins it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases.

Here's how it works:
The Mint makes a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins.  The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve moves this money into Treasury's accounts.  And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations in the near term without issuing new debt.  If the Fed was worried about all that newly created money being pumped into circulation, it could always counteract the inflationary effects by selling off the $2 trillion in securities it owns from quantitative easing thereby taking an equivalent amount of money back out of the economy.  Problem solved.  Right?  Well, sort of.  The interesting thing about the platinum option, as it turns out, is that it actually seems to be on a firmer legal footing than the 14th Amendment approach.  The law very clearly states that the Treasury Secretary can mint these platinum coins.  Hell...he could even adorn them with the faces of JarHead and LarryJ if he fancied.  The trouble, of course, is the politics.  Does Obuma stage a press conference where he holds up the two large coins and announces what he's doing?   It'd be hard to see how he could do that with a straight face.  Just because a gimmicky debt-ceiling dodge is legal, doesn't mean it's cost-free.  But that's another story.
 
Geez... they could make a blockbuster movie out of this.  I actually feel like this plan could, in addition to really screwing up the the economy more than it is now, provide the spark Hollywood needs.  I could sit here for ten minutes and rattle off a half-dozen great film concepts based on this story i. e.:

Bank caper: a dashing Clooney-esque figure assembles a team to steal the trillion dollar coins from the Treasury.

Comedy: a bumbling assistant Treasury Secretary played by Jack Black accidentally picks up the trillion dollar coins and spends them on a Mountain Dew, sending the entire government into a mad scramble for the coins before the world economy collapses.

Noir: A regular person somehow acquires the lost coins from Geithner's couch, and is slowly twisted.

Action: Super-villain Group EK LLC plots to destroy the coins and bring the economy to its knees, from which they stand to profit due to a nefariously brilliant hedge they have prepared.

Anything to distract from the actual spectacle in Washington.

Anyhoo... I heard there is going to be a beer summit held on this at the White House shortly.  I plan to attend this meet and I'll bring the forum up-to-date on what was said.

....Warph

[jarhead]

Damn WARPH, I'm gonna get a haircut today and be looking all spiffy so put my mug on the obverse side but ol Larry is going to the dentist and gonna be all grouchy looking so better put him on the reverse side !!!

[larryJ]

Warph, nice to see you posting again. I missed that.

Jarhead, from the way you have described yourself on other threads, in your own posts, as well as posts from other members of this forum, say, like Sarge, or even Teresa, who know you personally.......................................

IT'S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN A HAIRCUT TO MAKE YOU LOOK "SPIFFY"!

However, being the good buddy that I am, I will be happy to be on the reverse side....................watching your back, like a good soldier would do.

Larryj

[Catwoman]

It's nice to read you again, Warph!!! 

[frawin]

Warph, great to see you post again. I have been wanting to ask you about something. All of those bad things that you said would happen if Obama was elected are happening, how did you know that. You are the wise one.

[Warph]

Thanks, guys...  You to, Cat.  I'm leaving for my meeting at the W.H. tomorrow
and I'll keep you informed on how it went.

[Warph]

Warph, great to see you post again. I have been wanting to ask you about something. All of those bad things that you said would happen if Obama was elected are happening, how did you know that. You are the wise one.

Frank... I knew about this twit when he was running for Senator of Ill., from the people he hung out with and later, the way he voted in the Senate.  A very far-left clown.... made Barry Sander's of Vermont look like a punk.  And, believe me, when I say, his wife is just as bad.... or worse!  In the famous "insulting" words of D.H.Lawrance to describe the pair:  "Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines, the slimy, the belly-wriggling invertebrates, the miserable soddingrotters, the flaming sods, the sniveling, dribbling, dithering, palsied, pulse-less (Clowns) that make up (Michelle and Barack) today.  They've got white of egg in their veins, and their spunk is that watery, it's a marvel they can breed."  - - - D. H. Lawrence, 1912

And that goes for Hillary, too!