Funny Money

Here's a good explanation of the whole debt ceiling insanity by Ryan Cooper. Let me break down the basic points -- it's pretty simple.

1. There is no good reason for the debt ceiling to exist in the first place. Congress, with the president's signature, raises X amount in taxes and authorizes Y amount in spending. If Y>X, the debt will increase. Congress has already ordered this to happen.
2. The president is required by law to raise X revenue and spend Y. If the debt ceiling is not raised, he cannot obey the law.
3. There is no reason not to raise the debt ceiling. Not doing it will cause a catastrophe. The U.S. will not be able to meet its financial obligations or pay its debts. There goes your Social Security check and your Medicare. A global financial catastrophe will ensue, causing a world-wide depression. The U.S. will no longer be able to borrow money cheaply, because nobody will have faith it will repay. Basically, society will collapse.
4. But Biden doesn't need to have the debt ceiling raised. He has the legal authority to mint platinum coins of any denomination. He can mint a trillion dollar coin and put in the Treasury Department's account. Then the government will have the money it needs.

For him not to do this would be insane. Of course it's insane for the Republicans to make him do it but that's where we are. 

But here's an additional point I don't want to overlook. Money is fictitious. It's imaginary. It is conjured out of the air. That's what it is. I think the reason people don't want to do this is because they don't want to confront that fact. It's too strange, or hard to understand, or something like that. But it has always been true. And yes, silver and gold coins are just as fake. As far as actual use is concerned, silver is more valuable than gold. But that's beside the point. It was valuable as money for the same reason paper is valuable as money -- because people believed that it was money. That's how the world works.