My $0.028

In 2007, Congress directed the Mint to produce four new commemorative designs for the Lincoln penny to be rotated throughout 2009, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. I'd forgotten about it until just a few days ago, when a link to a newspaper site reminded me. While not a coin collector myself, there was something generally fun in the 10 year schedule of the state quarter program, even if it was only the minor curiousity of what you might have just got back in change.

The timing of this years release of the Lincoln penny is a curiousity of sorts also. In the year we choose to redesign our smallest monetary unit, we are going to create our largest ever national debt. The irony of the government's actions is probably lost in Washington though.

It would be nice if politicians had a better sense of history. FDR's New Deal program is often cited as support for the current "stimulus package" but FDR's own treasury secretary is quoted as saying "...I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot." This isn't unique to the United States. The Heritage Foundation reports on a similar initiative in Japan, from which it concludes "...the Japanese government imple­mented such a program during the 1990s, and the consequence was two decades of economic stagnation."

What is the real solution? It seems clear that it has to be one built on real free market demand that creates sustainable jobs. Not one that it artificially supported by the government. The best way to do that? Let wage earners keep and therefore direct more of the money they earn. There are politicians that recognize this, such as Texas congressman Lou Gohmert, who proposed his own alternative plan. That is all academic now though, as the spending has begun.

One final economic thought as a footnote - due to increases in copper and zinc values it apparently now costs around 1.4 cents to make a penny. So I guess that makes this my $0.028.