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.
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?
Answer:
Calculate the value of the government purchases multiplier if the marginal propensity to
consume equals 0.8, the tax rate equals 0.2, and the marginal propensity to import
equals 0.05.
Answer: