Yellen warns U.S. Treasury won't have enough cash to last long after Dec. 3 debt deadline

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published 16 November 2021

Continuing her long crusade to get Congress to do something, anything about the country's debt limit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told NPR she'll be advising Congress soon as to how long "lawmakers have to raise or suspend the debt limit before the government runs out of cash," Bloomberg reports.

"We may be able to get past Dec. 3, we may have the resources to do that, but not a great deal of time after that," Yellen said in an interview with NPR taped Monday, per Bloomberg. Since last month, the treasury has been using "extraordinary measures" to keep the government from running out of money. Around the same time, lawmakers averted disaster by temporarily raised the debt limit through Dec. 3, though there is no measure set for after that. Yellen on Monday also said she'd soon be "issuing new guidance about what we've learned since that time about how long they can go."

There is currently no plan in place as to how Congress will address the impending Dec. 3 deadline. If the Treasury does run out of cash, the U.S. would then "default on its financial obligations," explains Bloomberg, sending "credit markets into chaos, increase U.S. borrowing costs for an extended period and damage U.S. credibility throughout the world." Read more at Bloomberg.