The sell-off on Wall Street coincided with a surge in bond yields, which in turn raised the cost of U.S. borrowing and stoked investor fears about the wider impact across the economy.
On a new episode of This Week in Texas, ABC13 talks about the looming debt ceiling crisis and why leaders are pushing back on the plan to raise it while cutting expenses.
The extraordinary measures will buy Congress some time -- Secretary Yellen said it's unlikely the government will exhaust its cash and the emergency maneuvers before early June, though she noted there is "considerable uncertainty" around that forecast.
If the U.S. government cannot pay its bills, millions of Americans would feel a direct economic impact.
In short, probably not. But it is an emergency idea that pops up each time Congress threatens to let America run out of money.
Moody's estimates nearly 6 million jobs would be lost, the unemployment rate would spike back to nearly 9% and stock prices would plummet.
