Ten days ago, knowing full well what was coming, we asked a simple rhetorical questions.
Where is the trillion dollar coin? The people demand to laugh
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 29, 2013 [6]
A week later, assorted tabloids specializing in kittens and slideshows have made the people happy once more.
However, for the benefit of everyone who may have forgotten that this absolutely idiotic idea is nothing new, and was tried the last time the US was on the verge of default, which under Obama is happening with an annual periodicity, here is a reminder [7]of what both the Fed and the Treasury have to say on this particular topic.
The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it.
That’s the bottom line of the statement that Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, gave me today. “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” he said.
Of course, this will not prevent this particular idea from once again trolling up and clogging the NSA's servers (on those days in which they haven't short circuited) as is to be expected in any truly self-respecting banana republic.