Jon Stewart and Paul Krugman have been butting heads over the trillion-dollar coin idea. Stewart concludes that it is a "dumb f*****g idea," and Krugman thinks Stewart is "lazy" and "unprofessional." You can find the video here.
As someone who has called Krugman lazy in the past, I'm quite willing to offer you my opinion on this contoversy. Krugman is on shaky ground here. It's a bit much for Krugman to be criticizing Stewart for not getting all the subtleties of the idea behind #mintthecoin. In fact, many economists seem confused about it, and Krugman himself does not entirely get it (see this post). I think we can cut Stewart some slack - he's one of the more intelligent human beings on the tube, and he's trying to get a laugh. Obviously Krugman does not have much patience for people who don't take him seriously.
More to the point, #mintthecoin is interesting in that it draws attention to monetary economics and the relationship between monetary and fiscal policy. Other than that, Stewart has it nailed as a dumb f******g idea. The key problem is that this vehicle for circumventing the federal debt ceiling threatens central bank independence. Wherever the trillion-dollar coin is deposited, it constitutes a monetary policy action, and our institutions are set up so as to keep the Fed at arm's length from the Treasury. This would be like having President Obama show up for an FOMC meeting. Bad idea.
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