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


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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
Trump DOJ indicts New York AG Letitia James
Speed Read New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted as Trump’s Justice Department pursues charges against his political opponents
-
Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in Chicago
Speed Read The president is temporarily blocked from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state
-
Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leaders
Speed Read The Texas National Guard begin operations in the Chicago area
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-off
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats