A campaign is gathering pace on the American left to mint a single platinum coin and assign it a face value of a thousand billion dollars as a neat way of resolving the impending row between Congress and the White House over the US debt ceiling.

A Democratic congressman has endorsed the idea and a Republican one has introduced a bill to block it.

Newsnight's Gavin Esler was joined by Bloomberg's Josh Barro and James Pethokoukis from American Enterprise Institute to debate its merits.