Breaking News Trillion-dollar platinum coin could be minted at the last minute

[Mr.LV]

The coin that could avert a federal debt default

An increasingly vocal chorus is calling for the U.S. to #MintTheCoin — the $1 trillion coin.

www.axios.com

Trillion-dollar platinum coin could be minted at the last minute

Felix Salmon, author of Capital

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
A trillion-dollar platinum coin could be minted "within hours of the Treasury Secretary's decision to do so," Philip Diehl, former director of the United States Mint, tells Axios.
Why it matters: Congressional solutions to the debt-ceiling problem could take weeks to implement, especially if the reconciliation process is used — and time is running out. In case of emergency, a trillion-dollar coin could be deployed to bridge any gap between the money running out and the debt ceiling being raised.
How it works: The U.S. Mint, which Diehl ran from 1994 to 2000, already produces a one-ounce Platinum Eagle and has no shortage of platinum blanks already in stock.

• Producing a trillion-dollar Eagle would require only the denomination to be changed. "This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle," says Diehl. Then an automated process would transfer the new design to a plastic resin mold.

Even if Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, has no intention of minting such a coin, there is no reason for her not to quietly instruct the Mint director to take those steps a day or two in advance.

• At that point, a coin could be struck in minutes at the West Point mint. Even if it then needed to be physically deposited at the New York Fed, that's only a short helicopter ride away.

"Voila, we'd have bought ourselves the equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit, without any impact on inflation," says Diehl.

 

[deadeye]

It'll never happen.


That would be the end of our economy as we know it.


Whoever wrote that article should be ashamed of themselves for even implying that this would be a viable solution.

 

[Rubato]

Is this satire?

 

[O.G.]

 

[Mr.LV]

Is this satire?

No , it's not satire, It's being talked about lately with minting the 1 Trillion coin out West Point,New York and putting it on a helicopter to deposit it in the Federal Reserve in New York City

A trillion-dollar coin could be minted within hours of an emergency decision to do so, former US Mint director says

A $1 trillion coin could be created within minutes at the US Mint at West Point and flown to the New York Fed for physical deposit via helicopter.

www.businessinsider.com

A trillion-dollar coin could be minted within hours of an emergency decision to do so, former US Mint director says
Matthew Fox
20 hours ago

Dies for the 2012 American Eagle at the US Mint in San Francisco on May 15, 2012, in San Francisco. Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

• The US Mint can make a $1 trillion coin within hours of an emergency decision, an ex-director said.
• "This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle," he said.
• While it is possible, the Treasury secretary rejected the idea of such a coin in a CNBC interview.

A $1 trillion coin could be minted within hours of an emergency decision by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to avert a default on America's debts.

Philip Diehl, the director of the US Mint from 1994 to 2000, told Axios that the agency had no shortage of platinum coin blanks. That's the metal required to make such a coin, according to the law that the entire idea is based on.

"This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle," Diehl said, adding that only the denomination of the coin would need to be changed.

After that, the $1 trillion coin could be created within minutes at the West Point, New York, mint and flown to the New York Fed for physical deposit via helicopter.

The swiftness of creating a $1 trillion coin could serve as an extreme last-minute option if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of money on October 18.

But as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urges Congress to raise the debt ceiling to avoid an economic catastrophe, she is also knocking down the idea of the $1 trillion dollar coin.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Yellen said of the coin: "I'm opposed to it, and I don't believe we should consider it seriously. It's really a gimmick, and what's necessary is for Congress to show the world can count on America paying its debts."

A vote is scheduled for Wednesday to suspend the debt limit through the end of next year, but opposition from Senate Republicans gives the measure little chance of passing.

There would likely be many drawbacks from the materialization of a $1 trillion coin. It could undercut faith in America's monetary system and drag the Federal Reserve into a high-stakes political battle, Jason Furman, a former Obama administration economist, told Insider last month.


But the coin "gimmick" would effectively give the Treasury Department the funds needed to pay its debts and avoid an almost guaranteed economic recession in the scenario that Congress failed to act and raise the debt ceiling in time.

"Voila, we'd have bought ourselves the equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit, without any impact on inflation," Diehl said.

 

[Rubato]

Flying it to the NY Fed in a helicopter? If this was the opening scene to the next Batman movie I’d still call it too cartoonish.