Trillion Dollar Coin

If you think this is a joke, well...it’s not. While the idea of the U.S. minting a trillion dollar coin in platinum is theoretical, the idea of it exists because it was proposed in U.S. Congress. Like...for realsies.

Why? It would’ve been a sneaky way to kinda sorta help solve (well, more like “avoid”) the debt crisis in 2011. While there are limits on how much paper money can be circulating around the economy, there’s no limit on coinage circulating, making this trillion dollar coin one helluva loophole.

The idea was that the U.S. needed Congress to raise the borrowing limit, but they wouldn't do it. So...we would mint these platinum beauties representing a trillion dollars a pop. Then the Prez would order them to be deposited into the Federal Reserve, who would put them into the Treasury. Then we’d have more notional money to pay off our national debt. Woot.

Except...there’s a reason we don’t just create more new money out of nowhere. It can really mess with inflation and the worth of the U.S. dollar, which would not only affect things at home, but also abroad, since the U.S. dollar is the #1 global currency.

Surprise, surprise...the Fed and the Treasury made like Nancy, and "just said no."