Now is the time for the U.S. Treasury to issue 100-year bonds, CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow said Friday.
The informal adviser to President-elect Donald Trump told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday that the accelerated growth of the U.S. economy makes this the perfect time to issue a century-long bond—even as he acknowledged the idea might seem far-fetched to some.
"I want the U.S. Treasury, debt management, to issue...100-year bonds as soon as possible, to take advantage of generational interest rate lows that we will not see again for hundreds of years," he said.
"Other countries have done 50s, other countries have done 100s," he said. "We need to do that so we cut the interest expense for the next century."
Kudlow first tweeted about the idea Thursday morning:
Trump's pick for Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, joined CNBC's "Squawk Box" last week, and hinted that when faced with rising interest rates, the U.S. Treasury may consider issuing longer bonds.
"We will look at potentially extending the maturity of the debt because eventually we are going to have higher interest rates, and that is something this country is going to need to deal with," he said.
The world's largest economy would hardly be the first country to issue 100-year bonds. Mexico issued 100-year debt a little more than 6 years ago, and just last year it issued the first 100-year instrument in euros.
This past October, Austria ventured into the long-term bond market with 70-year euro government bonds. It was the fifth European country this year to sell debt maturing in at least half a century, following France, Belgium, Span and Italy, according to Financial Times. They raised £14 billion of 50-year debt this year, according to the publication.