Just as my ladder hits the wall of the castle the S and P minions come along to push it back by downgrading US treasury obligations.
It is not clear what the legal priority is among the Treasury's obligations, whether contractual such as bond debt or statutory such as social security.
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It also put off until March 1 the mandated spending cuts from a 2011 agreement that increased how much money the Treasury could borrow to meet financial obligations.
The fund has lately required annual infusions from the Treasury Department to break even, and its obligations are growing.
As for whether the rally can continue, removing the imminent threat of the Treasury Department skipping payments to meet its interest obligations seems bullish.
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To delay one, the Treasury would prioritise interest payments on the debt above other government obligations.
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The nation actually reached its debt ceiling yesterday and, while the Treasury Department says that it can continue to pay outstanding debt obligations and other bills for another two months, there will need to be an all new debt ceiling battle in Congress beginning in February to allow the nation to continuing making payments on its debt obligations.
"The idea that we should extract ourselves from the bulk of EU obligations is nonsensical, " the chief secretary to the Treasury said.
This frees up room under the debt limit and allows Treasury to issue additional securities to the public and raise cash to pay federal obligations.
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Despite the May 18 date, the group also predicted Treasury would be able to take additional steps that would allow it to meet obligations through at least the end of July.
"Treasury's failure to discover the scope and scale of AIG's executive compensation obligations ... potentially resulted in a missed opportunity to avoid the explosively controversial events and created considerable public and congressional concern over the retention payments, " the report says.
Obviously you continue to take in money because people pay taxes and all the other ways that revenue comes into the Treasury, but you are in a situation where, absent your borrowing authority, you have bills and obligations that far exceed the money in your pocket.
He said Enron's chairman Kenneth Lay contacted the Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans to say Enron might not be able to meet its obligations.
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