This article is a commentary from Paul Brodsky on the topic of
the “Trillion Dollar Coin.” Speaking of monetary abstractionism,
there has been recent talk of a fiscal gimmick called “The
Trillion Dollar Coin,” in which a platinum coin valued at $1
trillion would be created by the U.S. Mint for the Treasury
Department. Treasury would then rid itself of its pesky fiscal
deficit in one fell swoop by simply keeping the coin on deposit
at the Fed. The Trillion Dollar Coin idea is a marvel of
political imagination and public ignorance (and so it seems to
have legs!). As with most clever illusions, the Trillion Dollar
Coin is based on sound logical footing, one in fact we have
argued in favor of: asset monetization. But there is a
fundamental difference separating the Fed monetizing Treasury’s
gold to devalue the dollar, followed by a re-pegging of dollars
to gold at the higher fixed exchange rate (our idea), and
assigning an arbitrary value to an asset no one else is allowed
to own. After declaring the coin to be w