Funny Money: Pundits Float $1 Trillion Coin As Answer To Debt-Ceiling Standoff

Imagine sitting around the kitchen table, trying to figure out how you're going to pay off that next-generation HDTV you just bought.

Then someone has an idea. Brush off one of the old checker pieces in the attic, assign it a value of, say, $2,000 -- and use that newly minted "coin" to pay the credit card.

Such an absurd idea is, pun intended, gaining currency as a technically legal way for Washington to avert a looming fight over the debt ceiling. A Democratic congressman, a Nobel-winning economist and several prominent writers are now floating the idea that the Treasury Department should use obscure powers to mint a $1 trillion coin if Congress does not permit an increase in the debt ceiling. 
More