US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the United States is facing a catastrophic debt crisis if Congress fails to raise the statutory debt ceiling to fend off a default.
“It would be devastating,” Yellen said to Axios in an interview from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday. “It’s a catastrophe.”
“Of course, it makes me nervous,” she added
She said the United States could default on its debt by summer, which would lead to a global financial crisis.
Yellen said that “we’ll have a financial crisis and I believe we would have a recession in the United States.”
“Spending would have to decline to match the tax revenues,” Yellen said, which would deprive the US government of the ability to support the economy with stimulus.
She added that furthermore, “psychological consequences” like people fearing to spend money could then “further impact spending and deepen a recession.”
The top US financial official noted that a full-scale American debt default would also impact the global economy.
“Americans would face higher borrowing costs, and it would cause a good deal of turmoil globally as well,” Yellen said.
The US Treasury has taken "extraordinary measures" to fend off the default as the country reached its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. The Treasury has warned that the “extraordinary measures” would only help for a limited time.
Yellen has stated that the actual date on which the Treasury would no longer be able to use these measures is "quite uncertain," and could come in June.
She added that if Congress fails to raise the debt limit, the US could see a downgrading of its debt "at minimum.”
“The president and the leadership of Congress are responsible to find a way to get the debt ceiling raised,” she told Axios on Saturday.
Ghana is interested in purchasing a floating nuclear power plant from Russia, Ghanaian Ambassador to Russian Koma Steem Jehu-Appiah told Sputnik.
"I know that our minister of energy was here last year and signed a corresponding agreement. I think this is innovative, and in a conversation with the minister of energy, he said that the country is interested.
So, Ghana could purchase such a nuclear power plant," the diplomat said when asked about the possibility of Ghana purchasing a floating nuclear power plant.
Russia and Ghana began cooperation in the field of nuclear energy after signing an intergovernmental agreement in 2015.
The agreement outlined plans for joint work in the areas of training specialists, building nuclear power plants and related infrastructure, and providing maintenance services. In October 2023, representatives of Rosatom met with the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy in Cape Town. At the meeting, Russia proposed using floating nuclear power plants to supply power to ...
