Grave financial crisis? For the United States there's a quick and easy solution, which as a bonus would instantly solve several other problems:

The benefits are manifest:

• It would result in an immediate, powerful stimulus just at the moment that retailers need it most. There are something like 150-200 billion pennies currently in "circulation"—though most of them are sitting in mayonnaise jars or are lost underneath the sofa, where they do nothing for the economy. Imagine liberating all that spending power!
• The revaluation of the cent would save the US Mint (and therefore the taxpayers) millions of dollars annually, since it now costs well over 1¢ to coin a penny. Instead, the Mint would make a 98¢+ profit on every one it stamped out.
• Redefining the cent would let the Bureau of Engraving and Printing discontinue the one dollar bill, the production of which is another huge waste of government resources.
• The "dollar cent" would save the vending machine industry billions in scanners, sorters, and paper money handling equipment—resulting in lower prices for everything sold by machine.
• Without $0.01 coins retailers would simply round prices to the nearest 5¢, saving both seller and purchaser huge costs in handling pennies.
• Babies would no longer swallow and be made sick by dangerous copper-plated zinc discs, since pennies would now be worth enough to keep track of.

The one cent coin now buys less than a nickel did only a generation ago, and less than a quarter did when it was first introduced in its current form. No other major nation bothers with a coin so nearly valueless. Why are we wasting our time, and our money? Write your Congressman and Senators today. Offer them a penny for their thoughts!

^z - 2008-10-10

(correlates: BossJobs, CloudChambers, DeptOfRedundancyDept, ...)