Enter the trillion-dollar coin. It may sound nuts. But Congress passed a law in 1997, later amended in 2000, that gives the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to mint platinum coins, and only platinum coins, in whatever denomination and quantity he or she wants. That could be $100, or $1,000, or even $1 trillion. So if the debt ceiling isn't increased, the Treasury could create one of these coins, deposit it at the Federal Reserve, and use the new money in its account to pay our bills.
And though the logic of this maneuver is as silly as the trillion-dollar coin itself, the debt ceiling is sillier and potentially far more destructive.
