First, we're not getting out of our debt. Second, the fact that we might have to resort to this coin plan because our economy is being held hostage by an insane political party is proving the "USA really is a silly, stupid nation" stereotype, not the coin plan itself.
And the coin plan doesn't even sound silly if you know much about our monetary policy, in the same way that "The US Treasury is just like a family budget" sounds logical but is incredibly stupid if you know much about US economics and the way we use money.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the coin plan
should sound silly to you regardless of how much economic expertise you have.
The idea for the Treasury Department to mint a coin and send it to the Federal Reserve in order to pay off the debt was first popularized by Populist Presidential Candidate Bo Gritz in 1992. As a standard part of his stump speeches, he would hold up a 5" example coin.[9][10] The specific concept was first introduced by Carlos Mucha, a lawyer who commented under the name "beowulf" on various blogs.
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"Beowulf" would later tell Wired magazine that the coin idea came from a December 2009 Wall Street Journal article that talked about how several people were able to generate frequent-flyer miles at no cost by ordering coins from the U.S. Mint with a credit card offering mileage rewards and then depositing the coins at a bank to pay off the credit card debt.[33] He also said that he was inspired by a 2008 book, Web of Debt, by Ellen Brown, which quoted a former Treasury official who said the government could order the printing of large coins to pay off the national debt. "Beowulf" said the trillion dollar coin idea is more rightly attributed to a small discussion group than to an individual, adding that the group was "just in it for the lulz".[34]
Essentially the whole "let's make a coin thing" is a spotlight on a hilarious loophole in the United States Code that allows for a coin of theoretically any value to be minted as long as it's made of platinum. It also serves as a legitimate philosophical exercise on the nature of our debt, the debt celing and the role of the federal reserve.
It's funny, and interesting, to consider that such a thing is legal and
could technically cirumvent the debt-celing fight. But outside of the rhetorical world minting such a coin would do considerably damage to the balance of the three branches of government, as it would bypass both congressional oversight and be largely immune to any judicial challenge. It's a valid thought experiment to embark on when discussing the state of our economy, but taken seriously as a solution it's perfectly viable fodder for Jon Stewart to target. The fact that the Fed and the Treasury have already rejected the idea (and had to) should be indicative enough of this.
The real issue I had with his original bit was the mention of the "100 Quillion dollar bill," the one with the centaur. The hard limits on paper currency take a little of the sting out of that joke.
