United States public debt

As the deadline nears for the debt reduction super committee to reach agreement on deficit reduction, some Republicans for the first time are allowing for the idea of using some tax increases to close the gap.

The current bipartisan plan to raise the debt ceiling would cut at least $2.4 trillion dollars in government spending.

The deadline is looming as is the possibility the country will have to default on its $14.3 trillion of debt.

By buying up US debt through internationally disparate financial intermediaries, Chinese entities hid exactly how much US debt they had acquired.

The U.S. national debt is now well above 9 trillion dollars — Andrew Yarrow thinks this is not just bad economic policy, but also a moral issue.