(Article originally published here on October 26, 2015)
European Government Debt Infographic. Unlike many of these EU countries, the U.S. is sovereign and can never run out of money, except by choice.
(Image by EuroCrisisExplained.co.uk from flickr) Details DMCA
The following article was originally published in 2013, then again in 2015 with modifications, when the debt ceiling was within a few weeks of being broached.
As president Reagan used to say "There you go again." We are here (again) at another self-imposed debt-ceiling, reachable in a few weeks according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and possibly even the end of this week due to a debt ceiling moratorium that is due to expire then.
All the arguments below are still valid, though the bills proposed at the time may have been tabled.
The president can, and Constitutionally must, pay bills already authorized by Congress. There is precedent for Treasury-issued money from president Lincoln's time to fight the Civil War. And the faith in the dollar must not be sacrificed to partisan gamesmanship.
See details below.
(Article originally published here on October 18, 2013)
United States Note by Wikipedia Commons
The article below was originally published when the last debt ceiling had just passed in October, 2013, after being published during the previous debt ceiling of January 2013.
Yet, here we are again, just a week or so away from the next debt ceiling "crisis,' conveniently occurring just about the time of an off-presidential election that no one is even talking about (some local issues can be very important and with so few people voting, your vote will count more than usual).
This time around, new bills have been introduced on both sides of the aisle to pay our debts, but nothing more. These include HR692 introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA, 4th district), which has been given an 11% chance of passage by govtrack.us since every Democrat and the president will oppose it on the grounds that it pays for no programs, but "pays China before us" as one commentator put it.
Another bill HR3807, by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA 17th district) would raise the debt ceiling and is given 0% chance of passage in the Republican controlled House.
But there are still other ways, ways that do not require changing the debt ceiling, but allow for getting around it, permanently, so that the country is not subjected to cowardly Congressional (because Congress lacks the courage to pass spending cutting bills that they know would be universally unpopular, and almost certainly economically stultifying), back-door blackmail. Read on...
(Article originally published here on January 22, 2013)
The coin would be issued by Treasury, and under the coinage act of 1792, and many revisions beyond, we don't have to pay a private bank for the "privilege" (read: RIGHT) to make coins (thank goodness). What this would do, of course, and what terrifies the banks, is to show how money is actually created, why we can't "run out of money" and why the private central bank or its member banks should not have a monopoly to "coin Money." Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives that power to Congress, and never mentions banks. Plus it would show that wealth inequality is a result of a money monopoly, not because those with all the money are so "smart" or "productive." They are mostly neither of those things, just in the rent-seeking class, able to extract wealth from the productive class through legal and financial manipulation, while doing nothing productive themselves.
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