US debt

Deja Vu All Over Again: Total US Debt Passes Debt Ceiling... In Under One Month Since Extension

Zero Hedge

2 September, 2011

Well, that didn't take long!  Perhaps the important part of last month's theatre was not the debt ceiling but the setting-up of the Super-Comittee?!

Remember when one month ago the US, to much pomp and circumstance, not to mention one downgrade,  announced a grand bargain raising the debt ceiling from $14.294 trillion to something much higher, with a stop gap intermediate ceiling of $14.694 trillion, or $400 billion more. 

Well, as of today, or less than a month since the expansion, total US debt is at $14.697 trillion. 

Yep - the total debt is again over the ceiling, which means the US debt increased by $400 billion in one month. 

Score one for fiscal prudence. And while the total debt subject to the limit is still slightly less, at $14.652, one week of Treasury auctions and will be time for Moody's to justify again why the US is a quadruple A credit.