I told you this would happen

The United States government has maxed out its "credit card". The $14.3 trillion limit on federal borrowing was reached yesterday, leaving Congress eleven weeks to raise the threshold or risk a financial panic or another recession. And they'd better do something about this - the current Congress was able to avoid a shutdown earlier this year, so they can probably make it out of this new mess alive. In fact, they're already making cutbacks - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally notified Congress that the government would halt its investments in two federal pension plans so it won't exceed the borrowing limit. However, there are other ways Congress could come up with the money, for instance, an illegal drug could become legal but subject to taxation. Or maybe they could start putting a "fat tax" on junk food, especially the Double Down "sandwich" from KFC. Another way would be to execute some of the nastier federal prisoners because they're becoming too much of a drain on the taxpayer. Or if all else fails, they could just start printing money like crazy.