Experts said the Treasury would face hurdles in convincing itself of the legal basis of such a step. The administration of George HW Bush looked at the matter in 1992 but government lawyers decided at the time that legislation would be needed. Daniel Hemel, a University of Chicago Law School professor, recently wrote a paper with David Kamin of NYU Law, concluding that if anything developments subsequent to 1992 have strengthened legal arguments that the Treasury would be exceeding its authority if it unilaterally introduced inflation indexing.

Mr Hemel also disputed arguments that no one would have legal standing to challenge the decision in court, saying there were several categories of individuals who could establish they were harmed by such a change.

Conservative judges in particular might take a restrictive view of the department’s ability to make such a major unilateral decision about the tax code. “Those are all tough things for the Treasury to contend with if it wants to move forward on this,” he said in an interview.

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