3 ms·

Too bad the US Constitution was created to deal precisely with this issue. If only it didn't state that "No state shall. . . make any Thing but gold and silver

• prostoalex 14y ago
  During one of the recent California budget emergencies (don't remember which one, there seem to be two or three every year), the state issued I.O.U.s to contractors and employees. Initially banks accepted I.O.U.s at the same rate as US dollars, but ever confident about California's legislative wisdom, politely declined afterwards, which led to a whole bunch of entrepreneurial activity on Craigslist "services" section, where you could sell a California I.O.U. for about 75-80 cents on the dollar. Debt obligations can serve as a proxy for money, so California can already issue those. What they don't have the power to do is to require it to be legal tender, so in a way this inflationary currency would only be accessible to those who have no choice but to accept it (i.e. state contractors and employees).
• niggler 14y ago
  File this under "awesome": US treasury secretary can issue platinum coins of any denomination. This is currently a serious proposal to resolve the current fiscal crisis