Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Who needs a trillion dollar coin when you have the Magic Money Tree?

"The Magic Money Tree" — Frontispiece from 1929's "Wonder Tales From China Seas" by Frances Jenkins Olcott

The idea of a Trillion Dollar Coin is getting a lot of, ahem, currency these days as our United States politicians and pundits debate all things fiscal and cliff-like. There was even a tongue-in-cheek (I think) opinion piece in The Washington Post last month advocating the sale of Alaska to help pay off the national debt.

Clearly, though, what we need more than a Trillion Dollar Coin is a legendary Magic Money Tree, complete with a Helper Monkey™ to toss the coins down from the branches.

Speaking of the Trillion Dollar Coin, here are some Twitter one-liners on that topic from Ryan Teague Beckwith, the politics editor at Digital First Media's Project Thunderdome:
  • That $1 trillion platinum coin is going to be the MacGuffin in "National Treasure Part VI" in 2024.
  • National Treasure 3: With the debt ceiling looming, Nic Cage must find a $1 trillion coin owned by John Quincy Adams.1
  • IDEA: Obama coins $1 trillion coin, puts "DEFAULT" on one side and "PAY DEBTS" on the other. Boehner flips.
  • If Ron Paul were still in Congress, we'd be arguing whether the $1 trillion coin should be gold instead of platinum.
  • Barack Obama? RT @TheStalwart: HUGE! A Nobel Prize winner joins the #MintTheCoin movement http://read.bi/TGwbCf
  • I love that the trillion-dollar coin idea first came from someone named "Beowulf." http://bit.ly/13fVrCc
  • House Republican proposes bill to prevent Obama from using trillion-dollar coin. Reminder: Obama would have to sign that bill into law.
If you're still confused, Beckwith ties everything together nicely in this explainer. There's no mention, however, of the Magic Money Tree idea. Maybe we should leave that one for the Green Party.

Footnote
1. It will be a lot easier for Nicolas Cage to acquire the lost coin if he's actually a ... vampire.

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