United States debt ceiling

The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Even before seeing those details, some lawmakers were criticizing the deal as not doing enough to tackle the nation's debt, while others worried it's too austere and will harm many low-income Americans.

US President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle on the thorny issue of the debt ceiling, world agencies reported, citing Kevin McCarthy. This is a key stage in avoiding a US default.

President Joe Biden said Friday that Democratic and Republican negotiators were on the verge of resolving a debt ceiling standoff, as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic US default was pushed back to June 5.

"It's very close and I'm optimistic," Biden told reporters at the White House. "I'm hopeful we'll know by tonight whether we're going to be able to have a deal."

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy both said they had a productive debt ceiling discussion late Monday at the White House, but there was no agreement as negotiators strained to raise the nation's borrowing limit in time to avert a potentially chaotic federal default.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that unless Congress acts soon to raise the nation's debt ceiling, "financial and economic chaos would ensue."    

Republicans have been pressing President Joe Biden to strike a deal to provide spending cuts in exchange for lifting the national borrowing limit.    

President Joe Biden, the Republicans and the U.S. economy were on a disastrous collision course yesterday after the White House made clear it will not negotiate over extending the nation's debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that the government will run out of money and default on its debts as soon as June 1, if there is no authorization for more borrowing.

A trillion dollar coin could be created by the US Minister of Finance and deposited into the account of the US Central Bank to repay an equivalent share of US debt. In full impasse on the debt ceiling, the idea, considered far-fetched, is evoked by elected officials and on social networks.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has challenged Congress to raise the government's debt limit in order to free up relief spending for Hurricane Harvey, a disaster that the governor of Texas said had caused up to $180 billion in damage.