Yep. This is an early start to the Canadian tariffs. They provide most of the balance of what we don’t produce here domestically. We produce a hair over 50% of what we use.
Interesting thing going on now: Musk and his minions and Der Fuhrer ignored the court order to resume federal funding.
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Well I’m sure Congress will step right up to enforce their power of the purse as a coequal branch of government.
I’m also sure that the Chiefs can still win the Super Bowl if Roger Goodell just has the courage.
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The ball is in the judiciary’s court.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but all the judiciary can do is issue a ruling. Enforcement comes from the Executive branch, and failing to do so the Executive branch is subject to discipline by the Legislative branch. And we all know how many stones the Legislative branch has when it comes to Trump.
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The judge will hold someone in contempt, and US Marshal Service is the courts’ law enforcement agency. A Marshal would enforce the contempt order if jail is the punishment. The Marshals are within
the DOJ and receive direction from the AG. All roads lead to Der Fuhrer, and the argument one of his sycophants stated is a judge cannot restrict the executive’s use of legitimate power. He is bypassing Congress, refusing to follow legislative direction on use of funds, and ignoring court orders. What separation of powers? What checks and balances? What co-equal branches of government? We have a King, and the King can do no wrong.
Hard to believe we are only a couple of weeks into the Thousand Year Reich. Harder still to believe a large % of Americans approve of this unchecked exercise of power dismantling the federal government.
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That’s what I mean. Ultimately the only check on the President is Congress’s power to remove him from office. Which we all know could never happen with this Congress or any really (if a blatant attempt at an armed coup didn’t get it done, it’s unlikely withholding spending will). I have absolutely no faith in our AG (one of the most openly corrupt individuals in American history) and even less in Congress.
That would be Yale law graduate JD Vance.
Who watches the watchmen?
Comic book nerds?
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More Executive Orders: Trump orders the U.S. mint to stop producing the one-cent piece (the U.S. has never made a “penny”, that’s a British coin), citing the well-known fact that the coin costs more than one cent to produce. There has long been a lot of chatter around this, so it’s not just a Trump thing. The problem however is this: nickels. To make up for the lack of “pennies” in circulation, the mint will have to produce a helluva lot more nickels. The problem is nickels are an even bigger money loser than pennies. Each penny costs 3.7 cents to produce and distribute, but each nickel costs 13.8 cents. It’s estimated that eliminating the penny in a cost cutting move will actually result in a cost increase of $100 million per year. The U.S. mint is gonna go even more broke saving all this money.
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I’m surprised he hasn’t declared dogecoin the official currency.
I have a vague memory of a Planet Money episode from many many years ago about this. I thought the small change was not a money-losing proposition for Treasury owing to seniorage, which, as I incompletely and perhaps erroneously recall, is interest collected by the mint on the “loans” of coins to the Federal Reserve.
I doubt that something subtle like that would escape the eagle eye of Trump.
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“Seigniorage” is simply the difference between the face value and the cost to produce. It can be positive or negative. Paper currency generally has positive seigniorage. For example, it costs roughly 5 cents to produce a $1 bill, so the seigniorage is +95 cents. The penny has a negative seigniorage of -2.7 cents. Overall, the U.S. earns positive seigniorage on all coins and bills combined, but not necessarily on all denominations individually. It’s this seigniorage that keeps people from melting down the coins for the value of the raw material.
All that said, I don’t know what interest the government earns by loaning coins. But I think it’s generally agreed that the mint loses money on pennies. There is a legitimate argument there. But there are arguments that the circulation of pennies actually benefits businesses, so it’s a net benefit to the economy. There are arguments that it hurts businesses and actually causes inflation. Fiat currency is a pretty interesting concept, and I’m certainly no economist.
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You guys are missing the point. Trump has to get rid of the penny to make room for the new Reichsmark coins.
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Trump plays one on tv
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That’s ok. They can just make more money.
If you don’t think that’s where President Musk wants to go…
I’m pretty sure I could make money running a casino.
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