Trillion dollar platinum coin anyone?

From a CNN article:
"A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds."

Ill take 2! Unless platinum reaches more than a trillion an ounce of course.

Full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/28/balkin.obama.options/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

 

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Not true. They can only make coins in the denominations and specifications that are authorized.

Also not true. There used to be statutory limits on the different types of currency (silver certificates, United States notes etc) but those limits no longer apply.

 

And if they can buy their way out of this crisis by making two trillion-dollar coins, they can do it again by making two more. And so on.

The best part? After a few years of that kind of policy, a trillion dollars will be a convenient denomination for pocket change.

 

Are you trying to tell me everything I read on the interwebs isn't true? Blasphemy!

 

Everything, no of course not. Some things? Sure some things aren't true.

 

I believe the article is referring to the authorization for the platinum American Eagle bullion coins, which specified the coins' weights and composition but left their sizes and denominations to the Secretary's discretion.

 

There's no need to actually mint coins or print currency. The fed is doing this already. It simply buys T-bills with electronic money it creates by data entry. It has been given a quaint name (Quantitative Easing) now in it's third batch. Why bid with real money when you can just CREATE it? Then the T-bills sit in the FED vault and are assets where none existed before. It's modern counterfeiting taken to the highest level in the history of mankind.

This is all well and good until those who actually created wealth realize that the dollar is no longer reliable because of massive counterfeiting by the FED. Enormous inflation will come. It's a matter of how long the monetary bubble will last before it bursts.

 

What is your guesstimate on the burst?

 

31 USC § 5112

"(k) The Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time. "

 

I stand corrected. I thought the law specified the denominations for the platinum like it does for the gold and silver. I was wrong, sorry.