U.s. Debt | featured news

Projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace.

President Barack Obama, in a populist step designed to appeal to voters, will propose a "Buffett Tax" on people making more than $1 million a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress on Monday.

Friends, there has never been a more fascinating, detailed, and persuasive way to look at how our national debt affects us all (thank you Duncan Sylvester for pointing it out to me). The wonderfully thorough, yet simple, USDebtClock.org lists not only the U.S. National Debt, but the Debt Per Citizen, Debt Per Taxpayer, U.S. Federal Spending, the U.S. Federal Budget Deficit, plus spending on Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Defense/Wars, Income Security, Net Interest on the Debt, Interest Per Citizen, and Federal Pensions. In addition, it shows U.S.

Standard & Poor's president Deven Sharma steps down just weeks after the agency downgraded the US credit rating.

US Vice-President Joe Biden, on a visit to China, seeks to allay concerns over US debt, saying America has never defaulted on and never will.

Fitch Ratings said Tuesday it will keep its rating on U.S. debt at the highest grade, AAA, and issued a "stable" outlook, meaning it expects the rating to stay there.

China and other governments have little choice but to keep buying U.S. Treasury debt to store swelling foreign reserves even after Washington’s credit rating was cut by Standard & Poor’s.

The sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's. Accelerating fears of a new global recession sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging more than 600 points as Washington policymakers scrambled to contain the damage fueled by reaction to the U.S. credit rating downgrade.

Standard and Poor's does not think the United States will default on its debt, the rating agency's president Deven Sharma said on Wednesday.

Could the U.S. lose its top credit rating even if a deal is reached to raise the debt limit? Market analysts and investors increasingly say yes. The outcome won't be quite as scary as a default, but financial markets would still take a blow. Mortgage rates could rise. States and cities, already strapped, could find it more difficult to borrow. Stocks could lose their gains for the year.