Especially during a decline and fall, one really has to enjoy the humor. This is not a joke:

Why it matters: Congressional solutions to the debt-ceiling problem could take weeks to implement, especially if the reconciliation process is used — and time is running out. In case of emergency, a trillion-dollar coin could be deployed to bridge any gap between the money running out and the debt ceiling being raised.

How it works: The U.S. Mint, which Diehl ran from 1994 to 2000, already produces a one-ounce Platinum Eagle and has no shortage of platinum blanks already in stock.

Producing a trillion-dollar Eagle would require only the denomination to be changed. “This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle,” says Diehl. Then an automated process would transfer the new design to a plastic resin mold.

Even if Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, has no intention of minting such a coin, there is no reason for her not to quietly instruct the Mint director to take those steps a day or two in advance.

Okay, it is a joke. It’s all a big, stupid joke. How stupid? If minted, this single one-ounce coin would debase increase the real, legal money supply by about 1,429 times. It would still only account for roughly (estimated) .0014% of the fake money supply. That’s not an imbalance. That’s a punchline … to a funeral joke.