Lew Bonds? Trillion Dollar Platinum Coins? Ways to Bypass the Debt Limit

I would love to get my hands on some Lew Bonds.

The idea, as detailed by Bloomberg View columnist Matt Levine, is that Treasury could offer, say, a 20%-coupon bond that would sell at far above par value, giving the government a financial cushion and avoiding technical default until Congress raises the debt limit. Some Twitter commentators have rallied to the cause, even suggesting they be called “Lew Bonds” for Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

So the principal amount of the bond would only be counted against the debt limit so these bonds would be technically okay to issue. The idea of buying a bond that pays a 20% coupon rate would be outstanding and that auction will have tons of oversubscribers.What they should do is only allow people with incomes under $100,000 a year to buy these bonds. It would be great for savers (and anyone else) to get a 20% coupon rate on Treasuries. That would be something to triple mortgage the house to buy. A 20% guaranteed rate would beat real estate, stocks, REITs, almost anything. Talk about a middle class giveaway. The other trick would be this one:

Several months ago an improbable amount of momentum built behind the notion that the Treasury mint a platinum coin with a $1 trillion face value, deposit it with the Federal Reserve and draw on that to cover deficit spending. The idea arose from an obscure and ambiguous law apparently intended to allow the Treasury to meet demand for physical coins from collectors and savers. The Obama administration in January went so far as to publicly rule out the prospect in January before a debt-limit deal was ultimately reached in Congress.

Yeah they would just march the coin around whenever the debt limit is reached. Sounds like the basis for a heist movie starring Mark Wahlberg and the Rock were they steal the trillion dollar coin and hijinks ensue.