New York Times
Paul Krugman
Past Nobel Prize winner for economics
Huff Post
January 7, 2013
Should
President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillion platinum coin if
Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely. He will,
after all, be faced with a choice between two alternatives: one that’s
silly but benign, the other that’s equally silly but both vile and
disastrous. The decision should be obvious.
For those new to this,
here’s the story. First of all, we have the weird and destructive
institution of the debt ceiling; this lets Congress approve tax and
spending bills that imply a large budget deficit — tax and spending
bills the president is legally required to implement — and then lets
Congress refuse to grant the president authority to borrow, preventing
him from carrying out his legal duties and provoking a possibly
catastrophic default.
And Republicans are openly threatening to
use that potential for catastrophe to blackmail the president into
implementing policies they can’t pass through normal constitutional
processes.
Enter the platinum coin. There’s a legal loophole
allowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins in any denomination the
secretary chooses. Yes, it was intended to allow commemorative
collector’s items — but that’s not what the letter of the law says. And
by minting a $1 trillion coin, then depositing it at the Fed, the
Treasury could acquire enough cash to sidestep the debt ceiling — while
doing no economic harm at all.
So why not?
It’s
easy to make sententious remarks to the effect that we shouldn’t look
for gimmicks, we should sit down like serious people and deal with our
problems realistically. That may sound reasonable — if you’ve been
living in a cave for the past four years.Given the realities of our
political situation, and in particular the mixture of ruthlessness and
craziness that now characterizes House Republicans, it’s just ridiculous
— far more ridiculous than the notion of the coin.
So if the 14th
amendment solution — simply declaring that the debt ceiling is
unconstitutional — isn’t workable, go with the coin.
This still
leaves the question of whose face goes on the coin — but that’s easy:
John Boehner. Because without him and his colleagues, this wouldn’t be
necessary.
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