Coyote Blog

5 Comments

1. Rob:

   Classic, concrete example of a major problem with government-directed spending. When a business makes this mistake, it has every incentive to stop it, else it goes out of business. The impact of this failure is thus limited to its own sphere.

   Government, however, has no such failure mechanism -- until all the little leaks that go unnoticed grow (artificially increasing demand causes more market participants) and add up to one big crisis.

   Reminds me of Arizona's subsidy of alternative fuel vehicles where a giant SUV only needed an engine conversion (provided by a friend of congress) and a tiny alternative fuel tank to qualify.

   July 20, 2011, 1:09 pm

2. Noah:

   Not sure it isn't a wash as far as cost to the US Mint as there is a distribution cost via normal channels in the banking system.

   July 20, 2011, 1:28 pm

3. marco73:

   How many dollar coin redesigns have we gone through? Susie B Anthony, Sacagewea, and now the Presidents? Am I missing any?
   This has been a money losing mission for 30 years.

   Technology is going to kill th e coin business - more and more vending machines have credit card swips, eliminating the need to carry any change.

   July 20, 2011, 1:53 pm

4. caseyboy:

   marco73, here is another special $1 coin fiasco for you. RuffWire;

   "Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007. And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate. The pile of idle coins, which so far cost $300 million to manufacture, could double by the time the program ends in 2016, the Federal Reserve told Congress last year."

   Rob, what you say is true unless your business is a "too big to fail" business.

   You are right paper and coin currency will disappear. It will all be electronic and you won't be able to buy or trade without your electronic number issued by? See Revelation 13:16-18

   July 20, 2011, 2:16 pm

5. Russ R.:

   Mr. Meyer,

   You're forgetting that the Mint's COGS is significantly less than $1.00 for each dollar coin sold.

   This is literally a government "money-making" scheme that is centuries old... seignorage.

   If anyone outside the government attempted it, he'd be charged with counterfeiting.

   July 22, 2011, 8:25 am