Posted on 10/15/2013 5:45:53 PM PDT by mdittmar
A day of political disarray Tuesday thrust the United States to within hours of a debt default deadline, sparking fears of deep damage to a fragile US recovery and the global economy.
Just 29 hours before the US government begins to run short of money to pay its bills, there was no clear way out of a stalemate that has called the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency into question.
If Congress fails to raise US borrowing authority before midnight Wednesday (0400 GMT Thursday) the US Treasury would begin to run out of money to meet all US obligations and slip towards a historic debt default.
In the face of the deadline, the US political system, divided between President Barack Obama's Democrats and Republicans who run the House of Representatives, has effectively ground to a halt.
Republican leaders repeatedly tried and failed Tuesday to appease the party's conservative Tea Party faction with bills that would raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government but which had no chance of becoming law because they targeted Obama's signature health care law.
Major world powers meanwhile looked on in dismay at the brinkmanship and political recriminations in Washington, fearing reverberations that could wreak havoc in their own sometimes weakened economies.
"We're far from a deal at this point," White House spokesman Jay Carney admitted on Tuesday.
Amid rising anxiety on the markets, the financial rating agency Fitch put the United States on warning for a downgrade from its top grade AAA spot.
(Excerpt) Read more at sg.finance.yahoo.com ...
The “AAA spot” is a worldwide joke.
Load of garbage. Half of this is flat out lies.
The US has more than it needs to pay its debts.
If they go unpaid even for a minute it is because Obama reneged on paying them.
The DC bubble has burst. Let the culling begin.
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