The Debt Crisis is looming (again) and the Fed has been roundly criticized (rightly so) for doing nothing more than printing more money and buying up our own debt to stave off a default. 

This time, it seems, they're doing something different: Minting a trillion dollar coin. From MSNBC:

Before the ink dried on the fiscal cliff deal, the next crisis sure to send Washington into partisan gridlock has emerged: Debt Ceiling 2.0. But there's a movement afoot for a suspiciously simple -- albeit a little whacky -- solution to end the debt ceiling debate: The trillion-dollar coin.

Yes, you read that right. It might be crazy, but some liberal lawmakers and economists are discussing a plan for the federal government to use a legal loophole to mint a platinum coin worth enough money to cover the nation's debt.

"It sounds silly, but it's absolutely legal," Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from Staten Island, told Capital New York. "And it would normally not be proper to consider such a thing, except when you're faced with blackmail to destroy the country's economy, you have to consider things."

Fortunately nothing so stupid has yet been undertaken by the Fed, but the MSNBC piece goes on to cite several liberals who are warming to the idea. 

I'm sure the people who won't be able to buy bread because of rampant inflation will appreciate how clever the fed was in minting a coin and not printing more money.