Treasury Secretary Jack Lew today for the first time offered a debt ceiling deadline—and it's pretty soon. In a letter to John Boehner, Lew said the government will be unable to pay its bills unless Congress passes a debt limit bump by Oct. 17. On that day, the government will be down to its last $30 billion, which "would be far short of net expenditures." The date is essentially in line with what Congress expected, Politico reports.
Yesterday, Lew told a Bloomberg summit that investors seemed a little too confident that a deal would come. "People have to take seriously the fact that Congress has a lot of work to do." Some analysts are starting to do just that, Business Insider reports. One DC-based analyst today estimated that there is a 40% chance of a default—and he's basing the other 60% on "blind faith." On the bright side, Moody's yesterday said that hitting the ceiling probably wouldn't prompt a US credit rating downgrade, Reuters reports. (Read more Jack Lew stories.)
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