BARRON’S – Elon Musk wants to save the U.S. taxpayer trillions of dollars. Every penny counts.

Musk, the de facto head of President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has suggested that trillions in annual savings are possible. The federal government spends about $7 trillion a year.

So getting rid of the penny would save the government—and by extension, U.S. taxpayers—a bit less than $200 million a year. At $200 million, that would be 0.02% of Musk’s trillion-dollar goal.

The effect on the economy would be equally minuscule.

Canada got rid of the penny more than a decade ago. Its economy hasn’t noticeably suffered from the coin loss. Retailers north of the border simply round up or down to the nearest nickel. If a Tim Horton’s coffee costs $3.01 after tax, the buyer pays $3. If the math works out to $3.04, the price paid goes to $3.05.

As for the business of mining the metal that goes into the coins, the change wouldn’t move the needle. Annual penny production accounts for roughly 0.1% of annual global zinc demand and about 0.001% of copper demand. No one should flip out over that.

There would be some job losses. Contractors make coin blanks for the U.S. Mint. Still, the biggest economic impact might be the loss of those machines at theme parks and monuments that squeeze pennies into souvenirs.

The penny issue feels like small change. It might be DOGE-worthy, but exactly where the agency will focus its efforts is hard to say. It is less than a week old. A lot of its energy is likely to go toward working with various government departments and agencies to reduce regulations and change procedures.

Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/bridgewater-ray-dalio-debt-crisis-risk-de845773?mod=hp_WIND_B_2_1