The trillion dollar platinum coin

 Life sometimes imitates art in the most pathetic and scary of ways. The treasury is considering minting a trillion dollar platinum coin to avoid a government default. Back in 1998, the Simpsons ran an episode where the government had printed a trillion dollar bill as part of the Marshall plan, but it was stolen by Montgomery Burns en route to Europe. I'm not sure which idea is dumber.

The two main discussion points around minting the coin are being able to forestall a default by raising money that will tide things over until Congress raises the debt limit. The second point is that this can be done without adding to the national debt or causing inflation. Huh? The government borrows money to run everything, so essentially, issuing a coin for currency will just be borrowing more money to cover the cost of that. While it's technically true that it wouldn't contribute to inflation, it would certainly contribute to the debt, but since the country has been monetizing debt for at least a decade, inflation will inevitably increase. Also, how the coin will not add to the national debt is something that really is not made clear in any discussions about it. Move along, peasant, nothing to see here.

Try to do an end run around the debt ceiling by doing this is just another step towards a massive crash. In theory, the debt ceiling at least forces Congress to have their fingerprints all over spending and causes some sanity checks, even if insanity always seems to win. Congress still has to be accountable and still has to pass budgets and spending bills. Assuming the coin is found to be legal (which seems like a slam-dunk given how little serious scrutiny is paid to the monetary system), then it will become the go-to for any president who doesn't want to be bothered with things like the Constitutional process of budgeting. In other words, this will decouple national spending from Congressional intervention.

Think about that one for a moment. We've gone so far past the boundaries of real wealth and into debt Candyland that creating trillions out of thin air is the only way to keep the whole charade going. Trying to grasp the ramifications of that is a little like trying to figure out where the universe ends. It essentially means that we are at the lost stop on the Nowhere Train until it goes off the end of a washed-out bridge. Who knows what happens after that, but it's not going to be pretty.