A Platinum Coin as Big as the Ritz

FR7 Baptist · Jan 9, 2013

“It was an amazing predicament. He was, in one sense, the richest man that ever lived—and yet was he worth anything at all? If his secret should transpire there was no telling to what measures the Government might resort in order to prevent a panic, in gold as well as in jewels.” That predicament, of Fitz-Norman Culpepper Washington, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” centered on a single, flawless diamond, which was a cubic mile in size. Perhaps more fantastic still is the idea, gaining momentum in non-fictional circles, that a predicament engulfing Washington, D.C., can be resolved with a single platinum coin—and not even a very big one.

The story goes like this: Sometime around the end of February, the Treasury will have spent all the money it has, and it will hit the statutory limit on the amount that the federal government can borrow—the debt ceiling. The fiscal-cliff negotiations, which were the product of the recent debt-ceiling fight, just made it worse by deferring another constructed crisis involving automatic cuts—sequestration—to about the same juncture. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, the government won’t be able to pay its bills, including things like Social Security, soldiers’ pay, and interest on bonds, meaning that the United States of America would go into default and all manner of financial disasters would ensue. The Congressional Republicans, knowing this, plan to use the debt ceiling to force President Obama and the Democrats to agree to things like big cuts in Medicare. Since Obama doesn’t want his Presidency to coincide with a Depression, they think they have all the chips, apart from the one about the public hating them.
Click to expand...

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blo...um-coin-as-big-as-the-ritz.html#ixzz2HWSJugR9

This has to be the most creative idea I've heard in a while.

mont974x4 · Jan 9, 2013

Gee, I wonder whose photo they'd put on that coin.

Obama could get a Nobel for economics soon.

FR7 Baptist · Jan 9, 2013

mont974x4 said: ↑

Gee, I wonder whose photo they'd put on that coin.
Click to expand...

Maybe they could put Ron Paul on it? :laugh:

poncho · Jan 9, 2013

Instead of one big coin why not issue a collection of coins with a portrait of every congress person and senator who helped run up the debt we all have to pay?

A Platinum Coin as Big as the Ritz

FR7 Baptist Active Member

mont974x4 New Member

FR7 Baptist Active Member

poncho Well-Known Member

Useful Searches

A Platinum Coin as Big as the Ritz

FR7 Baptist Active Member

mont974x4 New Member

FR7 Baptist Active Member

poncho Well-Known Member