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.
China has suspended several 2025 export controls on strategic materials — including rare earths, superhard materials, and lithium batteries – for a year. Is this a concession to the US, or a move in a far more complex game?
"The first aim of China’s export controls was to consolidate its leverage in negotiations. The second was to establish a long-term framework for managing such controls," says Yana Leksyutina, deputy director at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
Сhina could activate this mechanism at any moment, and now everyone knows it’s a lever it holds, she explains to Sputnik.
Balancing the Mineral Market
"The moratorium on export bans to the US essentially resets the rare earth market to where it was previously," Jeff J. Brown, author of 'The China Trilogy' and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.
In the meantime, there will be a global rush by the US and its NATO allies to acquire as many rare earth ...
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The impact of the ongoing federal shutdown on the US economy is far worse than expected because it is lasting much longer than anticipated, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Friday.
"The impact on the economy is far worse than we expected, because it's gone on for so long," Hassett told Fox Business. "I think we were thinking that we could have at least 3% [GDP] growth in the fourth quarter. I think now we're expecting something like half that because of the harm [caused] by the Democrats' policy.".......more here
https://sputnikglobe.com/20251107/federal-shutdown-hitting-us-economy-harder-than-expected--white-house-1123074810.html
Dozens of Palestinians, foreign activists, and journalists have been wounded as Israeli army-backed settlers carried out coordinated assaults across the occupied West Bank.
The attacks took place on Saturday, with the biggest number of the casualties, namely 17 people, being caused after settlers raided the outskirts of the Abu Falah village, northeast of the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Those injured included foreign activists.
According to the agency, settlers also torched a home, while Israeli forces attacked the area, targeting the residents, who had gathered near the scene. The latter incident, though, did not lead to any casualties.
In another wave of violence, settlers launched attacks on Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists participating in the annual olive harvest across several towns, leaving many with fractures and bruises.
The attacks were most severe in Beita, south of Nablus, where settlers descended from nearby outposts and ambushed ...
