G OVERNMENTS IN FISCAL distress sometimes find creative ways to pay the bills. Revolutionary France sold bonds secured against land confiscated from the Catholic church; America used paper bills to fund its war of independence. In 2001 Argentina issued IOU s, as did California in 2009. During Greece’s sovereign-debt crisis Yanis Varoufakis, then its finance minister, toyed with plans for a parallel currency.

Not the most desirable of clubs, then, yet some in Italy are eager to join. So-called mini -BOT s, originally hatched by eurosceptics to replace the euro, made it onto the ruling coalition’s manifesto last year. Mini -BOT s (Buoni Ordinari del Tesoro, or ordinary treasury bonds) would be used to settle the government’s bills with commercial suppliers. Recipients could use them to pay taxes, or for public services. Devised by Claudio Borghi, an economist of the Northern League, one of Italy’s ruling parties, they would be low-denomination bills (up to €500, or $569) that bear no interest.

They would not be legal tender—that would break EU law. But Mr Borghi would like them to circulate widely, eventually being used in shops to price goods. He has written that mini- BOT s would enable a quick exit from the euro, though ministers say they have no such plan.

On May 28th the lower house of parliament passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to bring down arrears, and to study mini -BOT s in detail. The latter clause was reportedly tagged on at the last minute: some lawmakers did not realise what they were voting for. As investors became uneasy Giovanni Tria, the finance minister, said mini -BOT s were not an option. But Matteo Salvini, the League’s leader, says he will press ahead with mini- BOT s in the absence of “a smarter way”.

In truth, they would bring little gain. Though the government’s stock of unpaid bills is the euro area’s largest, at around €50bn, or 3% of GDP, the Bank of Italy reckons this has halved since 2012. And Mr Tria says the government is now settling bills more quickly. Mario Draghi, the boss of the European Central Bank, has opined that as mini- BOT s are not legal tender, they would add to Italy’s stock of debt. So the government might as well resort to conventional bonds. Though the spread between Italian and German yields has widened since the populist coalition was formed, it is far lower than in countries that have issued temporary IOU s, or “scrip” (see chart). Italy is nowhere near shut out of bond markets. In fact, ultra-loose monetary policy means bond yields are low in historical terms.