Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about a penny for Trump's thoughts.

Trump, for whatever reason, decided to announce that he was getting rid of the penny.

He said, quote, for far too long, the United States has minted pennies, which literally cost us more than two cents.

This is so wasteful.

Then he went on to say he'd instructed the Treasury to stop minting them.

For whatever it's worth, it looks like they cost closer to three cents to make in most years.

Either way, this led to a lot of questions.

First, can he do this?

Kind of.

I'm not actually an expert on coinage laws, but it looks like he can't actually get rid of the penny officially.

That would take Congress.

But it does look like he can lower the amount minted to effectively

remove it. Second question, is this inflationary? Will this cost consumers? It's not really

inflationary, not on any meaningful level, but it will cost consumers who use cash a lot a few bucks a year as things get rounded

up. Third, does this actually make sense? Is this one of those times where you'll say he's right

on this one? Not really. Okay, the penny costs three cents to make. Reminder, we have a fiat currency. The coins aren't

supposed to be worth their weight in anything. It's a token. From the government standpoint,

the question is whether or not it's worth three cents to have that token in circulation

for a few decades. I actually don't know the answer to that. My gut tells

me it is, but I can't find a study really getting into a single penny's value to the government

as it changes hands over the years. There's a couple more interesting questions to me. Where is his conspiracy-minded base?

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