5 quotes about the debt ceiling that will totally freak you out

"This would be a financial collapse and chaos unlike anything anybody has seen before." Oh, is that all?

Barack Obama
(Image credit: (Win McNamee/Getty Images))

Every day the government shutdown continues is another day that Congress postpones solving another problem with far greater potential hazards for the economy: The debt ceiling.

Unlike the shutdown, which analysts estimate will take a 0.2 percentage point chunk out of the GDP for each week it goes on (or less, now that furloughed workers will likely receive back pay), failure to raise the debt ceiling could result in a true financial catastrophe.

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Carmel Lobello is the business editor at TheWeek.com. Previously, she was an editor at DeathandTaxesMag.com.