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Paul Krugman chastises Jon Stewart for mocking the platinum coin

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:25:00 +0000

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman slammed Jon Stewart for his segment on the platinum coin, saying that "Obviously neither he nor his staff did even five minutes of looking at the financial blogs."

In an ABC News Web exclusive, Krugman said: “It is a funny thing. But you want to be funny from a point of view of understanding what the issues are. There’s a reason we’ve gotten to this place." He added: “Obviously neither he nor his staff did even five minutes of looking at the financial blogs which have been talking about this. Lots of people think it’s a bad idea. Lots of people think it’s a good idea. But it’s not just, ‘Oh, those idiots.’"

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White House: $1 trillion coin off table

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 22:44:00 +0000

The trillion-dollar coin is officially off the table.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Saturday that the Obama administration would not consider minting the platinum coin as an end-around the debt ceiling fight with Republicans in Congress.

Carney, according to the Associated Press, said the only two ways forward are for Congress to pay the bills for spending it authorized, or to push the country into a default.

“The President and the American people won’t tolerate Congressional Republicans holding the American economy hostage again simply so they can force disastrous cuts to Medicare and other programs the middle class depend on while protecting the wealthy,” Carney said in a statement. “Congress needs to do its job.”

A loophole in a law designed to cover collectible coins provides the Treasury secretary with authority to mint platinum coins in any denomination.

Mint the coin, even if Republicans impeach

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Surely there are plenty of foolish things that have been said in the discussion of the debt limit, a possible default by the United States government, and the idea of minting a platinum coin to prevent it. But it doesn’t get much more foolish than this argument against the coin by Eric Posner:

Another more pressing worry for the Obama administration: impeachment. With a majority in the House, Republicans could easily start impeachment proceedings. And while conviction in the Senate is virtually impossible, as Democrats would not join to create the two-thirds majority needed, merely launching the impeachment process would be politically devastating for President Obama, as it was for President Clinton.

It’s worth paying some attention to this, because it’s unlikely to be an isolated concern. Should President Obama somehow manage to skate through the upcoming debt limit confrontation without articles of impeachment drawn up, we can fully expect impeachment to hover over future fights between the Republican House and the Democrat in the Oval Office.