#MintTheCoin

Are you one of many Americans who would like to end all the fiscal cliff talks, and whatever the next debt ceiling related discussion will be about? Well, petitions.whitehouse.gov poster Graham K thinks he knows the answer: A $1 trillion US Dollar platinum coin. And this petition has started the #MintTheCoin campaign.

The full text of the petition:

we petition the obama administration to:

Direct the United States Mint to make a single platinum trillion dollar coin!

With the creation and Treasury deposit of a new platinum coin with a value of $1 trillion US Dollars, we would avert the absurd-yet-imminent debt ceiling faceoff in Congress in two quick and simple steps! While this may seem like an unnecessarily extreme measure, it is no more absurd than playing political football with the US — and global — economy at stake.

The theory is the US government has laws and regulation limiting its production of paper money and gold, silver and copper coins. However there are no regulations on platinum coins. Technically speaking the Treasury could mint a $1 trillion US Dollar platinum coin and Tim Geithner could simply deposit in the Treasury’s bank account. This would clear $1 trillion of room before the debt ceiling would be hit.

Of course this theory is not without its detractors. Simply creating $1 trillion has consequences to each dollar in existence. It also sets a precedence for an easy answer to a complicated problem. When you simply create money, you will have to pay for it somewhere.