The United States has already hit its debt ceiling--the legal limit of the amount of money it is allowed to borrow, as established by Congress.
Right now, the U.S. Treasury is resorting to "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the country's bills.
Sometime between February 15th and March 1st, the Bipartisan Policy Center projects, the Treasury's ability to use these "extraordinary measures" will end.
The average American will spend nearly $800 on Christmas gifts this year, and 30% will spend more than $1,000, according to recent Gallup research. And that’s just on presents. When you consider the extra food, decoration and shipping costs, you could easily spend an entire paycheck–or more–on Yuletide trimmings.
“The holiday spirit can act like Novocaine, desensitizing us to the costs,” says Mary Hunt, personal finance expert and author of Debt-Proof Your Christmas. “We all want to give our family a nice Christmas, but it’s dangerous to go into debt. People are waking up to the fact that it isn’t just spending money that makes us happy at the holidays.”
You don't have to be swallowed up by the B.A. debt maelstrom. Plan ahead. Educate yourself frugally. Here are 12 steps to education solvency.
What was once considered “good debt” is quickly spiraling out of control. Borrowers in the United States have an estimated $1 trillion in student debt, leaving many experts speculating about whether or not this will be the next bubble to burst.
While the high figure reflects the entire country, some individual states are faring better than others.
Things are bad in Europe. Anybody with access to a newspaper or the Internet has heard about the debt crisis in the Eurozone, which consists of 17 European Union member states, including Germany and France, but not including the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Things are bad. Greece totters on the edge of bankruptcy, with Italy, Spain, and Portugal lined up behind, ready to follow suit. Meanwhile, Germany and France, the two financially strongest members of the Eurozone, struggle to resolve the problem, even as they wonder, “What were we thinking?!”
Ever wondered just how U.S. consumers got so hooked on plastic that we amassed a whopping $794 million in debt?
Just take a look at this infograhpic from Credit Sesame, which takes us back (way back) to a time when charging purchases on a tiny card was nothing but a Utopian pipe dream.
The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion.
Who owns US debt around the world - and how big is it? Find out how China got to own over $1.4 trillion - and see which other countries have a slice
At the age of 18 it’s hard to fully grasp the weight of student loans. Less than two years earlier you were learning how to drive a car and struggling with the responsibility of walking the dog before school. Now, you’re expected to understand the incredible financial burden of higher education. At that young age the prospect of having $100,000 in outstanding loans upon graduation isn’t tangible — it seems like Monopoly money. However after you walk across that stage and toss your cap in the middle of one of the worst recessions in United States history those zeros get real, and smothering.
Europe is working to ramp up the firepower of its bailout fund, top officials said on Saturday, as the United States, China and other nations raised the alarm about its debt crisis hurting the world economy.
Financial markets plunged last week on fears that Greece's near-bankruptcy could spread to other euro zone countries, heaping pressure on European policymakers to prevent a repeat of the chaos that swept the world in 2007-2009.
Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, discusses the challenges of getting credit in a tough economy.
Interesting Video.
Another day removed from President Barack Obama's address to Congress on job creation and the economy, some reporters and commentators are narrowing in on an omission they see in his plan: What's he going to do about all those mortgages?
Mortgage debt continues to hold down consumer spending and imperil the financial security of American households. Short-term stimulus, like Obama's calls for an extended payroll tax cut and new spending on infrastructure, will not make that debt burden go away, economists tell The Washington Post:
I knew some of these statistics before looking at this infographic, but there were a lot of things that caught my off guard. Something needs to happen, the U.S. government spending $41.6 million every second last year, that is not right.
The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama's watch.
The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.
It's the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.
The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama's four-year term.
The Justice Department is investigating whether the Standard & Poor's credit ratings agency improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The investigation began before Standard & Poor's cut the United States' AAA credit rating this month, but it's likely to add to the political firestorm created by the downgrade, the newspaper said. Some government officials have since questioned the agency's secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found an error in its debt calculations.
The stock market tanked as the debt-ceiling debate dragged on, and didn't let up even after an agreement was reached. Then ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S.'s debt rating, and all heck broke loose in the financial markets: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 400 points on Monday -- forcing the Fed on Tuesday to make an unprecedented promise to keep its key short-term interest rate near-zero through 2013. Stocks shot up, as a result. Today, however, those gains have all but disappeared.
