The 1Trillion $ platinum coin option is the latest idea to avert a long drag out fight over the faith and credit of the USA. The treasury can mint the coin and deposit it in its account at the Federal Reserve. Mr Roche said the idea was an "accounting gimmick", but noted it was just "one really silly idea to fight another silly idea".
"The idea of the US willingly defaulting on debt is beyond crazy," he said.
"We started kicking the idea around a year ago and it was really a joke and the fact it’s become something sort of serious, well it’s a sad state of affairs that it’s become so dysfunctional in Congress that this is something we’re having to resort to."
Writing in his New York Times blog, economist Paul Krugman, said that while he did not expect the Treasury to go ahead with this "gimmick", there could be a case for it.
"This is all a gimmick but since the debt ceiling itself is crazy, allowing Congress to tell the president to spend money then tell him that he can’t raise the money he’s supposed to spend, there’s a pretty good case for using whatever gimmicks come to hand," he said.
Mr Roche also did not expect the Treasury to go ahead and mint a $1trillion coin, but said President Obama could use it as threat.
"I don’t think it’s something that will end up being used but I think that if it comes down to it we could potentially see the President use this as something where he says, 'look if you’re going to threaten to default on debt then I’m going to threaten to use the coin loophole'."
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