10th January 2013, 8:47 AM
One TRILLION Dollars! A bunch of pundits are talking about a trillion dollar coin being minted. I have no idea if that's even being officially considered or if it's the mad syphilitic dream of a pundit's brain.
What I can say is that even the news taking the idea seriously is like a mockery of commerce itself. Sure, it would legally "work", but what would it actually accomplish? Seems to me like it's an invitation for everyone to realize that money is just worth what people think it's worth, and when everyone realizes that at once, you get inflation. People need the lie to keep the market working.
Well, at any rate, the debt is 16 Trillion. Why not just print a 16 Trillion dollar coin? It makes as much sense. If not that, then print 16 1 Trillion dollar coins. Heck, print a 20 Trillian dollar coin and put the nation in 4 Trillion surplus! Anything's possible!
And because anything is possible, here's my scenario. The 20 Trillian dollar coin is printed, and just before it can be delivered, a mad nobleman in a tuxedo, top hat, monocle, and with a handle bar mustache descends upon the convoy in a hot air balloon, stealing it with one of those grabber claws and then vanishing into the upper trade winds to buy "all the tea in China". The police escorting the convoy will be too distracted by his small army of wind up automatons to stop it.
What I can say is that even the news taking the idea seriously is like a mockery of commerce itself. Sure, it would legally "work", but what would it actually accomplish? Seems to me like it's an invitation for everyone to realize that money is just worth what people think it's worth, and when everyone realizes that at once, you get inflation. People need the lie to keep the market working.
Well, at any rate, the debt is 16 Trillion. Why not just print a 16 Trillion dollar coin? It makes as much sense. If not that, then print 16 1 Trillion dollar coins. Heck, print a 20 Trillian dollar coin and put the nation in 4 Trillion surplus! Anything's possible!
And because anything is possible, here's my scenario. The 20 Trillian dollar coin is printed, and just before it can be delivered, a mad nobleman in a tuxedo, top hat, monocle, and with a handle bar mustache descends upon the convoy in a hot air balloon, stealing it with one of those grabber claws and then vanishing into the upper trade winds to buy "all the tea in China". The police escorting the convoy will be too distracted by his small army of wind up automatons to stop it.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)