Thursday, April 26, 2012

John Carney— The $1 Trillion Coin Solution to the Debt Ceiling

Yale’s constitutional law professor Jack Balkin has some innovative ideas about how to get around the debt ceiling. 
Read it at CNBC NetNet
The $1 Trillion Coin Solution to the Debt Ceiling
by John Carney | Senior Editor

Great that Jack Balkin is on board, but it was beowulf who proposed the idea initially and Joe Firestone who pushed it, and Balkin does give credit to "some commentators."

But, let's face it, Balkin's backing makes it likely that the president's team will pick it up and at least consider it.

Note that Prof. Balkin also asserts, "The "jumbo coin" and "exploding option" strategies work because modern central banks don't have to print bills or float debt to create new money; they just add money [reserves] to their customers' checking accounts [at the Fed with a few keystrokes]."

1 comment:

Letsgetitdone said...

I agree that Balkin's picking up on it probably ensures tht the White House knows it's an option. I’m sure the President must have been told about the PPCS option last July, because the WH follows CNN and also some of the well-known economics blogs.

However, there are many variations of the proposal, and I doubt that he was briefed on more than the Trillion Dollar coin idea as a way of getting around the debt ceiling.