On MSNBC last night, former Congressman Barney Frank said that the idea of a Treasury Secretary minting a “$1 trillion platinum coin” would never work.
“Things that seem really cute and clever almost never work. There’s a reality to things.” Frank responded when asked by MSNBC contributor Ezra Klein about the idea.
Frank suggested that the debt ceiling should be an easy fight for Democrats to win, based on the idea that America was unwilling to pay its bills.
Klein admitted that he was “honestly kind of torn” about the idea.
“There’s a big part of me that agrees with Barney Frank,” Klein said but added that he saw the benefit of the idea even though it would “strike many Americans as a Banana Republic-like way out of our problems.”
But Klein added that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be even worse, adding what he called a “grim conclusion.”
“Perhaps it is time to admit that America is a bit of a ludicrous Banana Republic,” he mused.
