Debt deadline? The sky won’t fall Thursday
Jeff Cox CNBC.com
All of the grave doom-and-gloom warnings aside, the federal government is unlikely to run out of money Thursday even if the latest hopes for a budget deal don’t pan out.
That has been the drop-dead date the White House has set for when the U.S. does not have enough money to meet its daily obligations.
Instead, Thursday is actually the day the Treasury Department will run out of accounting maneuvers that will allow it to continue to borrow money. The Treasury already technically has exceeded the nearly $16.7 trillion debt ceiling — with total debt outstanding at $16.75 trillion — but has been able to keep going through the creativity of its number-crunchers.
There has been much clamoring in Washington over the ramifications of a debt default.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went so far Tuesday as to suggest a ratings’ agency downgrade to U.S. debt could come as soon as overnight if the impasse isn’t overcome.
However, there have been no indications of a downgrade, other than a notice from the DBRS credit rating agency last week that it had placed the U.S. under review for downgrade. The firm, though, is not one of the big-three agencies — S&P, Moody’s and Fitch — that review sovereign credit.
So while a downgrade remains unlikely for now, things do get more difficult Thursday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/debt-deadline-sky-wont-fall-thursday-8C11397319
