Article Summary
In a letter to Congress, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew stated that the United States will
run out of borrowed money by Thursday, October 17 unless the $16.7 trillion debt
ceiling was raised. Every Thursday, the Treasury typically rolls over $100 billion in
debt as bonds mature and investors use the proceeds to buy new bonds, and Lew was
concerned that without an increase in the debt ceiling, a crisis could emerge from a
massive bond sell-off. Since the government had reached its current debt limit, it would
only be able to use daily on-hand revenue to pay its bills without the increase in the
ceiling. The Treasury expected the government to have only $30 billion per day in cash
on hand by October 17, while its typical daily expenses were $60 billion. “If we have
insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to
meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history,” Lew said.
Source: Gregory Korte, “Treasury will run out of borrowed money by Oct. 17,” USA
Today, September 25, 2013.
Refer to the Article Summary. When does the Treasury Department borrow? Why would
the Treasury have to borrow more than it estimated, as was indicated by its letter to
Congress to raise the debt ceiling? When would the Treasury repay what it borrowed,
and who is it repaying?