The #trilliondollarcoin meme

The coin seignorage idea has really caught on – not just in the blogosphere, but in the mainstream media as well. You have Brad DeLong, Matt Yglesias, Tyler Cowen and a lot of others talking up ‘The Coin’. In the mainstream media, the Economist, CNN, The New Republic and many others.

Just so you know what I am talking about, the idea is an end-run around the debt ceiling and it works like this:

  1. The Treasury mints a $1 trillion coin, or whatever amount is desired.
  2. The Treasury deposits the coin into the Treasury’s account at the Fed.
  3. The Treasury buys back bonds
  4. The retirement of bonds is an asset swap, no different from QE2
  5. The increase in reserve balances is not inflationary, as Credit Easing 1.0, QE 1.0, and QE 2.0 already have shown.
  6. These operations by the Treasury create no new net financial assets for the non-government sector
  7. The debt ceiling crisis is averted

Here’s what Ryan Avent of the Economist says about The Coin:

As the date on which Treasury runs flat out of money grows nearer, various harebrained ideas to workaround the statutory limit on borrowing and keep paying the bills have been getting more attention. This one, one of my favourites, seems like it just might work

Those MMTers are not so crazy after all.

Since this is Friday, I decided to have a little fun and started a #trilliondollarcoin meme as an ode to The Coin. My tweeps are an inventive bunch and they came up with some killer movie titles with the #trilliondollarcoin meme. Here are some of the best:

  • "All the President’s Coin"
  • “A Few Good Coins"
  • "League of Extraordinary Coins”
  • “Harry Potter and the magical coin”
  • “The Unbearable Lightness of the Coin”
  • “Gone with the Coin”
  • “Coin Kong”
  • “Citizen Coin”

Here’s what I got

  • “It’s a Wonderful Coin”
  • “One Coin Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
  • "The Manchurian Coin"
  • “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Coin”
  • “"The Silence of the Coins”

There’s a lot more where that came from. In honor of The Coin, I suggest the following blog name changes:

  • Barry Ritholtz: The Big Coin
  • Yves Smith: Naked Coin
  • Brad DeLong: Grasping Coins with Both Hands
  • Paul Krugman: Conscience of the Coin
  • Scott Sumner: The Coin Illusion
  • Paul Kedrosky: Infectious Coinage

Long live The Coin!

The Coin
Obviously we would add 10 zeros to the face amount, but you get the picture

Do you have any coinage to contribute?

P.S. – My favourite movie suggestion was “My Big Fat Greek Coin”. That takes care of two crises at once!

40 Comments
  1. dave says

    Coin Wars Trilogy

    1. Coin Wars

    2. The Coin Fights Back

    3. The Return Of The Coin

    1. Edward Harrison says

      That’s good – for when we hit the debt ceiling again.

    2. star wars nyrd says

      this is list is kind of imprecise. It should be:

      1. The phantom coin
      2. Attack of the coins
      3. Revenge of the coins
      4. A new coin
      5. The coin strikes back
      6. Return of the coin

  2. P says

    Artists rendition of what the coin will probably look like:

    https://twitpic.com/5xsjvd

    1. Daniel Conceicao says

      Wait! Are we ready to honor Bush Jr. with his own coin?

    2. Daniel Conceicao says

      The Da Vinci Coin, Slumdog Trillionaire, It’s Coinplicated, Trillion Dollar Baby and Get Smart (and mint the damn coin already)…

  3. Edward Harrison says

    Thanks, Ramanan. I missed that one.

  4. Ramanan V Iyer says

    I think that NYT blog post just came out …

  5. Ramanan says

    Warren Mosler – The Coin Of The Universe ?

  6. Aaron R says

    The Lord of the Coins?

    Coin Writedowns?

  7. Edward Harrison says

    Here are some more goodies:

    Dude, Where’s My Coin?
    You’ve Got Coin
    Lethal Coin
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Coin

    Keep ’em comin’

    https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23trilliondollarcoin

  8. Ramanan V Iyer says

    Bond Holders can say “The Platinum Redemption”

  9. Luke says

    Mr. Seigniorage Goes To Washington
    For Whom The Coin Tolls

  10. Dave Holden says

    Pulp coinage.
    Citizen Coin.
    A Clockwork coin.
    L.A. Coin.
    No Country for old coins.
    For a few coins more.
    Gone with the coin.

    etc… LoL.

  11. ggm says

    Citizen Coin
    Truth or Coinsequences, NM
    The Good, The Bad, and the Platinum
    Coinsablanca
    It’s a Wonderful Coin
    Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Coin
    Dances With Coins
    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Coin
    Das Coin

    What do I win? :)

  12. ggm says

    One more:

    The Manchurian Coindidate

  13. Wasabi says

    Yes we coin!

    Coin you can believe in

    Raising coin

    How coiny can you get?

    Crisis coin, coin, gone.

    Coin to a gogo, everybody!

    Roll, roll, roll your coin gently down the Fed

  14. Wasabi says

    The real McCoin

    The 700-pound coin in the room

    Take that, Coingress!

    Beauty and the Coin

  15. gnk says

    Coinaggedon: The Rise of the Imperial Presidency

  16. TC says

    Amazing Idea.

  17. Robert Nelson says

    (Trillions of)Pennies from Heaven

  18. David says

    How about “A Coin for All Seasons”
    “Miracle at Coin Creek”
    “Dr. Coin” (for the Gold Bugs who just want to say no)

    Also “Ode to a Grecian Coin”

  19. Tom Hickey says

    Three coins in the Fed. (Apologies to Frank Sinatra)

  20. Maurice says

    For the monetarists and scaremongers

    “Barry Got His Coin”

  21. SH says

    Children of the Coin

  22. SH says

    short circoin

  23. SH says

    Top Coin

  24. ex-PFC Chuck says

    How about “One Coin in a Fountain?”

  25. amajorpain says

    For those who like to play rough… how about

    “Coin Wars”.

    For those intergalactically challenged your opponent is on one planet while you hide behind another and as soon as you see the whites of they eyes …throw the coin. Don’t miss. It’s your only one on account it’s so dang expensive.

    or how about a cartoon:

    Coin Runner (…if it catches you you’re through…)

    and i know nobody messes with Andy but:

    Coinberry RFD

    more??

    The Coinmooners
    It’s a Coin, Coin, Coin, Coin World
    Smokey and the Coin
    I Love Coin
    All In The Coin

    a song a song:

    Here Comes The Coin (THEM)
    Big Coin (HAG)
    Leavin Georgia On A Fast Coin (Shaver)
    Livin On Coin Time (The Gentle Giant)

  26. Eureka Springs says

    Johnny Get Yer Coin

    To Coin A Raise

    Silva Coin Control

    Cream Coin

    Coin 22

    SidCointha

    As A Coin Mintith

    Lord of The Coins

    Free Your Coin and Your Funky Party Will Follow

    Make Change We Wont Bereave In

    Your Austerity Wont Get You Into Heaven Anymore

  27. Eureka Springs says

    Nirvcoina

  28. beowulf says

    The Coin Identity
    The Coin Supremacy
    The Coin Ultimatum

  29. TC says

    Coinzilla.
    The Rocky Horror Picture Coin.
    The year of living coineously.
    The old man and the coin
    to coin or not to coin: that is the question
    a coin for all seasons
    the good, the bad, and the coin

  30. Binky the meretricious bear says

    The Empire Strikes Coins
    Lair of the white coin
    fire walk with coin
    Last coin on earth
    Coin Fiction
    Coin Files Fight the Future
    Coin Files I want to believe
    Freddy got coined
    The coins of Baron von Munchausen
    A Fistful of coins/for a few coins more/the good the bad and the coiny

  31. Nik Kondratieff says

    A clever list indeed.

    I’m shocked no one has proffered:

    Raiders of the Lost Coin

    It is apropos on so many levels.

    Cheers and keep up the good work

    Nik

  32. SH says

    just for us jerks, my vote is for the good, the bad and the coin as the best.

Comments are closed.

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