A little disconnect: what President Obama, through Treasury and the Federal Reserve, really said last Saturday:
“We’re running out of money because the Republican House may not allow us to float any more debt; so I took the Platinum Coin off the table just to ensure that we would!
Next month, I’ll give you the gift of austerity, because, naturally, we’re now really gonna run out of money!”
Despite Saturday’s announcements by the Treasury and the Fed the Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) legislation is still on the books. For the President not to use it to fill the public purse with enough funds to banish the fiscal conditions that underlie austerity politics — the national debt, and the ability to cover the deficit for a long time to come — is inexcusably corrupt, fiscally and economically irresponsible, and completely opposed to the public purpose that the President is supposed to serve.
So, I want to tell the President that for as long as PCS is on the books, and he and others are claiming that we need austerity because we are “running out of money,” he has the duty and the obligation to mint a game-changing High Value Platinum Coin, for example, a $60 T platinum coin. After this legal tender coin is credited by the Fed, the presence of $60 T in the Treasury General Account (TGA), and its immediate use to begin paying off the national debt, will make it very plain that there is no need for austerity; no need to cut SS, Medicare, and Medicaid; no need to cut Head Start, no need to cut anything that’s working.
Yesterday, the White House line was that temporary fixes to the debt ceiling problem like the platinum coin would not solve the budgetary and political problems faced by the Government. Our mainstream media people did their thing by failing to call out the President on that – probably because they, themselves, have never dared think about any other PC option apart from the Trillion Dollar Coin. It’s easy to see, however, that a $60 T coin wouldn’t be a “temporary fix,” spawning crises every few months, even if it wouldn’t last forever. The fact that a $1 Trillion Dollar Coin would not solve our debt ceiling problem for very long, isn’t an argument for taking High Value PCS (HVPCS) off the table at all.
So, I call on the President to mint that $60 T coin now! I call on him to abandon austerity and to create financial plenty in Federal fiscal policy by using game-changing HVPCS. Austerity and “grand bargains” are “the great betrayal!” We don’t need such “greed bargains.” We need a full public purse, and then we need to get Congress to open the purse for programs that fulfill public purpose.
I call on others to join me in beginning again to blog, comment, facebook, and tweet about PCS; but this time to forget about the TDC, which was always the wrong coin, and focus on #minttheHVPC instead.
Up the ante! Make this about ending austerity, and using the right platinum coin to create the political space needed for doing it! Forget about them taking PCS off the table! As long as it’s legal it’s still on the Table! Mint that HVPC! End Austerity!
(Cross-posted from Correntewire.com.)



20 Comments

The monsieur can’t see the algorithm for the computer.
Austerity is population control. They don’t have the balls to just line us up against the wall. The ACA will do the same, only take a little longer. Thanks LGID for trying. I admire your stubborn streak, wish we had more like you. I will continue to bring up this solution (HVPCS) in all my future arguments about lack of money. Is our educational system that poor?
Thanks mtq. I wish some our FDL friends had a bit more of a stubborn streak. The President say something, and suddenly the readership goes way down PCS posts. No one seems to realize that the PCS option is still on the books and the President can access it at anytime if the going gets rough. Of course, The Treasury/Fed announcement on the coin, in managing burst the PCS bubble, has the effect of freeing up the President to do whatever he wants when the time comes, rather than having a strong public expectation that he can use PCS to get past the debt ceiling and also remove the need for austerity, which is what some of us who favor pCS would want. So, it’s important to recognize that the effect of the announcement isn’t to take PCS off the table as an option. It’s to restore the full freedom of action of the President to construct a “greedy bargain” with the Rs, and construct his own narrative about why that’s necessary based on “Hey, we’re running out of money.”
Regardless of what Obama does or says, it is now clear that the U.S. has no NEED to borrow. We may continue to do so, but the those who make that choice must stop bitching about the size of our debt, or make their case as to why borrowing is a good thing.
The USA NEVER,repeat NEVER required borrowing to pay any bills of the USA. Why Americans can’t understand that fact at this stage of the “game” is beyond me. We may be f#$%ed! I will not give up trying,though. What do i have to lose?
Agreed. But, I suspect that prior to the passage of 31USC5112(k), it would have required an act of Congress to avoid borrowing to finance our tax deficits. That said, we now have 31USC5112(k), which authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, on his/her own “discretion,” to issue an arbitrarily large amount of soverign money with which to pay the government’s bills.
Given that we have this capability, the people who feel that the national debt is a problem should be clamoring for us to use it at the risk of otherwise being call “hypocrites.”
It’s clear to us; but most people weren’t plugged into the TDC, even with all the publicity, so they don’t know!
Dood. We have to keep hammering away at it, explaining that borrowing and debt are simply a matter of choice. And, by God, you are certainly doing your part! Thanks.
The other thing is that, if the GOP stand their ground and force a (partial) shutdown, Obama will have four choices:
* capitulate.
* default on the nation’s bills, thereby violating the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
* borrow to pay the bills, thereby violating the debt limit, 31USC3101(b), which he agreed to and signed into law.
* coin platinum money, per 31USC5112(k), to pay the bills, thereby remaining a law-abiding citizen.
Does anyone want to place bets on which it will be?
i just watched the Frontline broadcast on Obama’s first term. I pick #1. Unfortunately for all of us.
PCS disarms the Wall $treet MOTU, who everyone should understand are Obama’s bosses.
Austerity is the tool of choice that those MOTU intend to use to massively lower the American people’s expectations and rob us of what little wealth they didn’t steal in the first round of the ‘great recession’.
The way I understand our prospects at the moment, is that keeping the HVPCS issue before the American people may very well be our best hope in getting the people to put some effort into learning about our monetary system.
It’s in light of this possibility that I applaud your efforts and hope against hope that the HVPCS issue helps open people’s eyes to the fact that there is no reason on earth to submit to the austerity the MOTU intend to impose on us.
The problem is what it has always been, you can open the door to this understanding, but the people have to accept your invitation, and all the while the MSM is busy doing it’s part to discourage that.
Keep going, it’s not at all clear yet whether the MOTU will succeed in keeping this knowledge secret anymore.
Hypocrites is always a good meme.
Yes, we do. Things are heating up at DailyKos, why not join the Money & Public Purpose blogging group there. We’re getting a lot more attention. It’s focused on MMT.
The GOP is now under pressure from the Koch brothers. So, the likelihood is now that they will fold on the debt ceiling and retreat to the sequester and the budget. So Obama my not need to capitulate, or have the cover of a strong stance by them to excuse an entitlement cut.
Of course the HVPC is just as effective against sequestration and budget cuts as it is against the debt ceiling. We have to keep pointing that out.
They succeeded in associating PCS with the TDC, an ineffective tactic. Now I need help in getting people to to see HVPCS is a solution to our perceived “debt problem” and if we use it we can move on from there to handle our real problems.
But it… it.. will devalue the USD! Which could be viewed as an added benefit.
Thanks. I just now tried to join but couldn’t figure out how to. I did, however, start a new group but didn’t find any buttons for joining an existing one.
Any suggestions?
Oops! I did not start a new group, but only found out how to.
Okay, I finally succeeded in subscribing to “money and public purpose.”
Thanks
I can’t believe there is anyone here that hasn’t been banned there. Yet.