US Pennies To Be Worth Five Cents?

Z-MaxX writes to point out Reuters coverage following up on last month's news that the US Mint has made it illegal to melt or export US coins in bulk, since the value of their constituent metals — in the case of pennies and nickels — now exceeds their face value. The new story quotes Francois Velde, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who thinks the new rules will not be enough — he believes that determined speculators are already piling up pennies. Velde suggests "rebasing" the penny to be worth five cents. Quoting Velde: "These factors suggest that, sooner or later, the penny will join the farthing (one-quarter of a penny) and the hapenny (one-half of a penny) in coin museums."

Comments

Re:then make them out of plastic or such...

[kimvette]

Many people do not realize that the Federal Reserve, the IRS, and the Mint are all privately-owned companies, and NOT government organizations.

The Federal Reserve is controlled in large part by foreign entities, who benefit when the Reserve issues more funds, which devalues the US dollar relative to other currencies. Decisions are known behind closed doors for some time before any announcements of increased allotments are announced, which enables those parties to invest in other currencies or make other transactions which benefits them for the long haul. It is to their great benefit that we remain OFF the gold/silver standard and stay on the artificial Fiat Currency system because they manipulate currency values well in advance so that they can improve their own net worth. The Fiat system also gives the Federal Reserve a reason to remain in existence, because if we went back to the gold standard, with paper currency being actual gold and silver notes, there would be no reason for the Federal Reserve to exist. Citizens would be in direct control of their own GNP.

The Mint always wants to be producing more money, but because they want a hefty profit margin, they want the cost of materials to remain low. If a penny can cost a HALF-cent to produce, they can mark it up 100%. If it costs 1.5 cents to make, they can probably charge the US government full 2.5 cents for it, but more taxpayers will eventually grow wise to it and force their elected officials to fix the mess.

The IRS profits by making the tax code as complicated as humanly possible, because then they can catch taxpayers "cheating" (read: making honest mistakes due to the convoluted tax code) and fine them for their inconvenience. Congress cares very little about eliminating the IRS in favor of a flat tax because most legislators are litigators by career, and many still own at least a small interest in legal firms. It is to their direct financial benefit that tax code remain as complicated as possible and becomes even more so (look at the alternative minimum tax; most people here have to do the work for BOTH codes and pay whichever is higher. How fucking fair is that?). Congress will NOT fix the tax situation here in America, ever, unless we as a whole elect to exercise our God-given, constitutionally-protected right to bear arms and beat tyranny back down.