On May 16 the permissible ceiling of federal debt was reached, at $14.3 trillion. With tax revenue covering only 60 percent of current spending, Washington had hit the limit of its legal right to borrow. The Treasury was forced to adopt “extraordinary measures,” including borrowing from government cash reserves and selling assets from the civil service retirement fund.66 This would see the Treasury through until August 2. After that, the US federal government would face a choice between paying salaries or paying its creditors. America was sliding toward something even worse than concerted
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