Whose Face Should Grace the $1 Million Bill?

David Reilly at Bloomberg has an interesting (and surprising) take on whose face might be best to grace a $1 million bill in the U.S., should the need arise. For obvious reasons, there was one particular favorite on my blog and, based on the way the article was setting up, it looked good right up to the point where the surprise came.

Forty years ago, the U.S. government said the $100 bill would be the highest-denomination note. With the Federal Reserve now trying to print its way out of the financial crisis, it may be time to revisit that decision.

Reinstating $10,000 or $100,000 notes -- which existed in limited fashion years ago -- won’t cut it. In today’s, “Brother, can you spare a trillion dollars?” economy, we need to think bigger -- a $1 million bill may be in order.

And picking a person to grace this bill offers a unique opportunity to single out someone who has played a key role in the dollar’s downfall.
...
So whose face should adorn this new bill? Here are some candidates with the winner at the end.

-- Ben Bernanke: The Fed chairman, who once proposed that the central bank drop dollars from helicopters to avert a crisis, has to top anyone’s list of dollar debasers. Under him, the Fed has become the global lender of last resort and has printed money to prop up financial institutions and markets. All the while he has professed having the magical ability to quickly mop up all the excess dollars if and when inflation becomes a concern.

You can kind of see where this was going (at least in my mind) and why hopes were running high right at about this point in the story.

Here's the rest of the list with the surprise at the end.

-- Bernie Madoff: Plenty of folks believe the U.S. has become nothing short of a giant Ponzi scheme. It would only be fitting then to have the Ponzi King front the currency.

-- George W. Bush: By pushing through tax cuts even as he embarked upon wars in two countries, the second President Bush helped run up the federal deficit, which has helped to undermine the dollar.

-- Wen Jiabao: It may be time to acknowledge what seems to be China’s inevitable rise on the global stage. Chinese Premier Jiabo’s visage would also serve as a reminder that China has acted as the U.S.’s drug dealer for years, feeding America’s debt addiction.

-- Henry Paulson: How could the nation not put a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chairman on its currency, especially since the U.S. government is essentially a subsidiary of the investment bank.

-- Richard Nixon: In 1971, then President Nixon broke the last link between currencies and gold, saying the U.S. would no longer redeem dollars for gold. To many, this was the starting gun for the dollar’s decline.

-- Jay-Z: The rapper helped undermine the dollar’s street cred. In his video for “Blue Magic”, Jay-Z waved around 500 euro notes instead of flashing the Benjamins.

-- Barney Frank: The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee is emblematic of legislators who care little about long-term, strategic policy, instead favoring short-term tactical politics that undermine any sort of discipline when it comes to fiscal policy.

-- Alan Greenspan: The former Fed chairman’s decision earlier this decade to keep interest rates too low for too long contributed to the credit and housing bubbles. That killed the economy, taking the dollar’s prospects down with it.

And the winner is: A little mirror that allows U.S. consumers to see their own reflection. These consumers, who in most cases are also voters, bear responsibility for the politicians and policy makers who got the dollar, and the country, into its current mess. They also gladly took part in the credit feeding frenzy that led to today’s trouble.

So long as they and the government try to borrow their way out of this jam, the dollar’s best days will be behind it.

I didn't see that one coming, but he's probably right.

By the way, there's quite a collection of one million dollar bills at Google images.

Comments

[chris coonan:]

funny stuff....so how many million dollar bills will it take to fix this mess....at least the demand in wheelbarrows will be strong.

Oct 26 06:14 AM

[a fat panda:]

It isn't just the 1M bill. We will need a $100,000 bill (Art Linkletter). A $500,000 bill (The guy from the Six Flags.) To go with the 1M bill (the guy from monopoly).

Oct 26 08:39 AM

[Fabien Hug:]

Tim Iacono, for warning us.

Oct 26 09:57 AM

[Mad Hedge F...:]

pse If you want to impress your friends with your vast knowledge of financial matters, then here are the Latin translations of the script on the backside of a US dollar bill. “ANNUIT COEPTIS” means “God has favored our undertaking.” “NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM” translates into “A new order has begun.” The Roman numerals at the base of the pyramid are “1776.” The better known “E PLURIBUS UNUM” is “One nation from many people.” The basic design for the cotton and linen currency with red and blue silk fibers, which has been in circulation since 1957, carries enough symbolism to drive conspiracy theorists to distraction. An all seeing eye? The darkened Western face of the pyramid? And of course, the number “13” abounds. Thank Benjamin Franklin for these cryptic symbols, and watch Nicholas Cage’s movie National Treasure. The balanced scales in the seal are certainly wishful thinking and a bit quaint. Study the buck closely, because there are going to be a lot more of them around.

Oct 26 10:57 AM

[nym:]

To represent the US tax-payer/consumer, I nominate Alfred E. Neuman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... with his motto "What, me worry?"

Oct 26 11:14 AM

[debtacid:]

It would have to be Nathan Rothschild and "In God We Trust" should be replaced by "We care not who makes your laws"

Oct 26 01:13 PM

[Burticus:]

Excellent suggestions above...

However, another logical face to grace the million dollar (not really) Federal (with no) Reserve note would be Woodrow Wilson, the banksters' annointed president who signed the unconstitutional (not really) Federal (with no) Reserve Act and later admitted that "I have unwittingly ruined my country." He is the poster boy for the modern-day elephants and jackasses who wipe their @$$es daily with the tattered remnants of our constitution in their quest for power and wealth.

Got rope?

Oct 26 05:07 PM