The White House has said that unless Congress gives it the green light to lift its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2, it will default. That would mean lawmakers have about a month to decide whether or not to approve raising the borrowing limit, right? Wrong. In reality, they have about nine days when […]
The federal government’s financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record […]
Mark Steyn: “I’m not concerned about a double-dip recession,” Obama said last week. Nor would I be if I had government housing, a car and driver, and a social secretary for the missus. But I wonder if it’s such a smart idea to let one’s breezy insouciance out of the bag when you’re giving a […]
(Associated Press) A Chinese ratings house has accused the United States of defaulting on its massive debt, state media said Friday, a day after Beijing urged Washington to put its fiscal house in order. “In our opinion, the United States has already been defaulting,” Guan Jianzhong, president of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., the […]
(Reuters) The U.S. is “playing with fire” over its debt ceiling debate and, “there is a risk a U.S. debt default may happen,” according to Chinese central bank advisor Li Daokui. Speaking at a conference in Beijing, Daokui said, according to Reuters: “If a default happens, the Chinese government should have a consultation with the […]
If you listen to Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama and the mainstream media long enough, and if you didn’t know any better, you might be tempted to think that the economic crisis is long gone and that we are in the midst of a burgeoning economic recovery. Unfortunately, the truth is that the economic crisis is […]
(By Andrew Lilico) It is when, not if. Financial markets merely aren’t sure whether it’ll be tomorrow, a month’s time, a year’s time, or two years’ time (it won’t be longer than that). Given that the ECB has played the “final card” it employed to force a bailout upon the Irish – threatening to bankrupt […]
In a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) laid out his “Path to Prosperity” 2012 budget proposal. Ryan also discussed how the U.S. government reached its big-spending tipping point: By the end of the decade, we will be spending 20 percent of our tax revenue simply paying interest on […]
The U.S. government is expected to hit the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling Monday, setting in motion an uncertain, 11-week political scramble to avoid a default. The Treasury Department plans to announce Monday it will stop issuing and reinvesting government securities in certain government pension plans, part of a series of steps designed to delay a […]
Posted by Colin Barr– Think the debate about U.S. creditworthiness can’t get any sillier? Guess again. A week after Standard & Poor’s finally told us what we already knew, that the U.S. fiscal fiasco is in danger of spinning out of control, along comes Weiss Ratings of Jupiter, Fla., to reaffirm we can’t max out […]
