Dressing up the Treasury Secretary in a clown suit
Rage Against the Coin
From Talking Points Memo
Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing -- deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills -- has really taken off. Last month I spoke with a senior Fed official who had never heard of the idea; these days it's all over.
There seem to be two kinds of objections. One is that it would be undignified. Here's how to think about that: we have a situation in which a terrorist may be about to walk into a crowded room and threaten to blow up a bomb he's holding. It turns out, however, that the Secret Service has figured out a way to disarm this maniac -- a way that for some reason will require that the Secretary of the Treasury briefly wear a clown suit. (My fictional plotting skills have let me down, but there has to be some way to work this in). And the response of the nervous Nellies is, "My god, we can't dress the secretary up as a clown!" Even when it will make him a hero who saves the day?
The other objection is the apparently primordial fear that mocking the monetary gods will bring terrible retribution.
Joe Weisenthal says that the coin debate is the most important fiscal policy debate of our lifetimes; I agree, with two slight quibbles -- it's arguably more of a monetary than a fiscal debate, and it's really part of the broader debate that has been going on ever since we entered the liquidity trap.
(More here.)
From Talking Points Memo
Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing -- deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills -- has really taken off. Last month I spoke with a senior Fed official who had never heard of the idea; these days it's all over.
There seem to be two kinds of objections. One is that it would be undignified. Here's how to think about that: we have a situation in which a terrorist may be about to walk into a crowded room and threaten to blow up a bomb he's holding. It turns out, however, that the Secret Service has figured out a way to disarm this maniac -- a way that for some reason will require that the Secretary of the Treasury briefly wear a clown suit. (My fictional plotting skills have let me down, but there has to be some way to work this in). And the response of the nervous Nellies is, "My god, we can't dress the secretary up as a clown!" Even when it will make him a hero who saves the day?
The other objection is the apparently primordial fear that mocking the monetary gods will bring terrible retribution.
Joe Weisenthal says that the coin debate is the most important fiscal policy debate of our lifetimes; I agree, with two slight quibbles -- it's arguably more of a monetary than a fiscal debate, and it's really part of the broader debate that has been going on ever since we entered the liquidity trap.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home