Total US Debt Hits $14.237 Trillion, Debt Ceiling At $14.294 Trillion

Submitted by Tyler Durden
03/16/2011 19:35 -0400

And from the relentless shock and awe happening abroad every single day, we briefly turn our attention to the total financial chaos domestically. Following the settlement of $67.6 billion in debt from last week's auctions, the Treasury managed to raise its dangerously low cash to a level that will give Tim Geithner pocket change for another week, or $99.5 billion. https://www.fms.treas.gov/fmsweb/viewDT ... 031500.pdf Alas, the cash buffer came at a price: total debt increased from $14.166 trillion to $14.238 trillion. As a reminder, the debt ceiling is $14.294 trillion, so on a pure basis there is a $56 billion buffer or less than one's week's worth of auctions. However since the debt actually subject to the limit is $52 billion less, there still is $109 billion in constitutional capacity. Add to that the $45 billion in SFP run offs over the next two week and Treasury has $150 billion or so in spending money left. As the deficit in the month of March is expected by Zero Hedge to be around $90 billion due to the deferred tax refund payments, we believe the money will last the US a month and a half, although once again depending on the daily burn rate, it may come much sooner as there is no book debt settlement until the week after next.



http://www.zerohedge.com/article/total- ... 94-billion