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welcome to the best interest podcast
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where we believe Benjamin Franklin's
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advice that an investment in knowledge
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pays the best interest both in finances
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and in your life every episode teaches
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you personal finance and investing in
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simple terms now here's your host Jesse
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Kramer hello everybody and welcome to
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episode 57 of the best interest podcast
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my name is Jesse Kramer today we're
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going to be talking all about the debt
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ceiling crisis that almost happened that
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big debacle things got a little bit
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tense leading into Memorial Day weekend
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and thankfully our politicians pulled
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through they figured out what they're
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going to do kind of sort of at the very
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least they kicked the can down the road
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but we're going to go into detail today
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because probably what you guys saw on
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the Nightly News or even if you read a
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quick blurb in the newspaper it didn't
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really dive into detail about why these
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things happen why they've been happen
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happening now for many many decades why
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some debt sealing crises really have
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caused the government to temporarily
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shut down and considering we only kicked
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the can down the road what might happen
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in the future so we're going to dive
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into some details there explain what
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happened but where we're going to start
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is actually more important because where
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we're going to start is what you guys
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should be doing about this fact that we
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just had a debt sealing crisis what if
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anything you should be doing should you
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be taking any action in your personal
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financial lives should you do anything
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to prepare for the eventuality of a
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future debt crisis all good questions so
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we're going to start with that we're
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going to start with the cool actionable
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advice the stuff that you guys can take
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away from today and then we'll dive into
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detail on exactly what this debt sealing
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issue was and you're going to walk away
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a little bit smarter and with some
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takeaways to implement into your own
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life all right let's kick it
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off
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[Music]
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okay so what should you do about this
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debt sealing crisis what lessons should
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you learn and what what can you
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implement into your personal finance
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life the short answer and you'll have to
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follow me here the short answer is
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nothing that you weren't already doing
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assuming though that you have good
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financial habits in other words
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if you already had all your financial
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ducks in a row then you're fine you're
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totally fine you don't need to change a
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thing this debt sealing crisis isn't
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really affecting you it didn't affect
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you at least not in the long run okay
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however if you don't have your financial
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ducks in a row then there are some
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changes that you should make you
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probably should have been making these
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changes regardless of a debt sealing
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crisis existing in the first place and
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perhaps this debt sealing issue is a
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reason reason for you to change sooner
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than later so again if you had your
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personal finances in order there's
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nothing you need to change if you didn't
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have them in order well you would have
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needed to change your personal finances
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regardless of a debt cealing crisis but
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the debt ceiling might be that straw
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that breaks the camels back so let's go
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to an example let's say you are a
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federal worker and you were essentially
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one Congressional vote away from
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temporarily losing your paycheck because
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that's what would have happened here
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right the whole debt cealing crisis it
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has to do and we'll dive into this in a
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second but it has to do with the idea of
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does the federal government allow itself
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to go further into debt and if it
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doesn't allow itself to go further into
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debt then they kind of stop all
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operations until they figure out if
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they're going to go further into debt
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and stopping all operations means well
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some people aren't going to get paid so
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if you're one of those people that
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wasn't going to get paid let's say that
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you don't really have much of an
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emergency fund you were staring down the
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barrel right you were on the verge of
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being in trouble you would have no
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paycheck coming in you'd have no
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emergency fund to cover next month's
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expenses what exactly were you going to
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do so there's a very good reason there
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to build up your emergency fund we've
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talked about it before here on the best
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interest podcast written about it on the
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best interest blog how much of an
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emergency fund do you need it depends
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different people will tell you different
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things my range of advice is 3 to 12
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months of living expenses
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and usually the shorter end of that
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range is for someone who doesn't mind a
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little bit of risk in their lives but
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also someone who feels very secure in
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their job security if if there's not
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much risk of you getting fired or if you
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were to say lose your job if you believe
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that you're quickly
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rehirable well then you can afford to
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have a smaller emergency fund but with
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someone who either is a little less
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secure in their job or has a very say
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unique job that it might take them a
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long time to get rehired they might want
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to be closer to that 12-month emergency
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fund I'm working with people in my day
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job who let's say you're a high level
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executive you were brought in to run
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this company and that's really what you
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want to do with your life you want to be
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in charge and there's only so many
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positions like that out there right a
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limited number of positions if for some
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unfortunate reason you were to lose your
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job you might not want to just jump at
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the first opportunity that comes your
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way you want to take your time you want
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to see what opportunities are out there
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you want to evaluate the pros and cons
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of everything you're going to need time
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to do that you're going to need time to
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travel for interviews to to evaluate
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different positions All That Jazz you
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get what I'm saying that might not be
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something you can do in three months you
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might need six or 9 or 12 months maybe
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even longer and if you find yourself in
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that position you're going to want an
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emergency fund that that matches that
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need in your life so yes this death
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sealing crisis for some people might
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have highlighted their need for for an
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emergency fund similarly like we can
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think about the investing side of the
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world the debt ceiling it certainly
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shook up the bond World a little bit and
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whenever anything gets shaken up in the
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bond World it ripples its way into the
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stock market we could dive into details
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there long story short because the
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treasury is involved here and the
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treasury they're the ones who issue
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treasury bills and notes and bonds and
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when you hold a treasury bill note or
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Bond you expect to get
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repaid makes sense right well if the
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treasury is no longer really paying back
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its debts because there's something
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going on with the debt ceiling it's
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going to affect at least in the short
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term the value of Treasury in this case
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treasury bills treasury bills are the
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shortest ones okay so the value of
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treasury bills we saw in the treasury
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markets in late May and early June we
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saw Bill prices Rippling changing pretty
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quickly yeah that infiltrated its way
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into the stock market a little bit there
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was some volatility definitely some
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uncertainty now if that uncertainty over
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that two-e time span drove you up the
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wall that might be a sign that your
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investment allocation isn't quite right
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or similarly if that volatility over
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that two-e time span if it materially
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damaged your wealth in some irreversible
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long-term way that might be a sign that
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your portfolio wasn't constructed
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correctly but again that isn't unique to
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the debt sealing crisis my my point is
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whether there was a debt sealing crisis
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or not the fact that your portfolio
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suffered damage in such a short period
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of time IR reversible damage or the fact
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that you were stressed out in such a
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short period of time over something that
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happened in your portfolio that is a
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sign that your portfolio probably wasn't
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in the right spot in the first
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place because debt ceiling crises they
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happen natural disasters happen
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political turmoil happens sometimes
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there are Wars in foreign countries that
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happen like this Ukraine Russia war that
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we saw really rocked the investing World
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in early 2022 of course it's a terrible
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humanitarian thing but these things
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happen life happens the world has some
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chaos in it it always has and it always
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will and if that chaos sometimes it's
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short-term sometime it even stretches
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out to years but if that chaos affects
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the market in some way and therefore
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affects your portfolio creates some
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volatility and ends up making your
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stomach upset that you lose sleep at
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night because of the chaos in the world
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and the volatility in your portfolio
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that might be a sign that your portfolio
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is a little too volatile it's a little
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too risk- heavy and maybe you need to be
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in something else that cealing crises
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happen this one might have been the one
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that showed you that your portfolio
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isn't quite in the right place the thing
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that I want you guys to take away from
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today is that your portfolio wasn't in
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the right place regardless of the debt
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cealing crisis Happ happening for most
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people if your emergency fund was in
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place if you had a balanced portfolio
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based on your personal timelines and
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goals and based on your personal risk
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tolerance then this debt cealing crisis
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really had no effect on you at all and
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there's nothing that you need to
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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change all right let's dive into to
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exactly what happened with the debt
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sealing crisis why it happened we're
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going to talk a little bit about
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government and politics a little bit of
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Economics it's not really so much
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personal finance but if you care about
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the way that your little corner of the
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personal finance and investing World
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fits in with a bigger picture this is
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going to be an awesome podcast for you
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that's one thing that I do care about
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I'm I'm really interested to know how my
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little budget and my little 401k and my
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little Roth IRA how do they fit into the
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greater economy how do they fit into the
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way that governments work because these
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things in the world they they do affect
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you it doesn't mean that you need to
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change what you're doing as we just went
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over but they do affect us so let's
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let's talk about it government is a bit
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like a business at least that's the way
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that I think about it now that business
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it aims to provide services and
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infrastructure that we all
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use this could go down a pretty
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interesting political science rabbit
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hole that I'm vastly unqualified to talk
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about but the idea is are there some
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things in this world that we should all
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pitch in on because we all or most of us
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end up using that that's essentially the
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essence of government or that's one of
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the ways that I think about it and you
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have some people on the political
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Spectrum who say no absolutely not
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everything should be independently owned
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and operated and run and if you want to
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use that thing you pay for it and if you
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don't want to use it you don't pay for
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it if you don't know what I'm talking
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about that tends to be maybe a more
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libertarian or or right-wing
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conservative view this idea of a smaller
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government a government that does less
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putting more responsibility on
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individual people to build their own
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things to maintain their own things to
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run their own things etc etc you know
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private schools instead of public
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schools but then on the other end of the
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spectrum on say the left or the liberal
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end of the spectrum are thoughts that
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yeah there are some things that
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everybody uses and so everybody should
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pitch in we should be taxed we're going
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to get to that and then we we all pay
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for it we all use it and government this
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this quote unquote independent body or
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this body that we vote in maybe there
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are some appointed positions they're the
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ones who run and maintain these shared
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resources so lots and lots of things in
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our government we have you know schools
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to educate us roads to transport
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ourselves and our Goods many of those
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things cost money and they combined for
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the roughly $6.5
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trillion us annual federal budget that's
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what our budget was last year $6.5
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trillion with a t and that's roughly
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$220,000 per US citizen now any business
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because remember the government is a bit
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like a business their business is
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providing the services and providing
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this infrastructure to us businesses
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need to make money somehow they don't
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necessarily need to make profit but they
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need to intake revenue and governments
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of course they collect that Revenue via
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taxation that's payroll taxes sales
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taxes corporate taxes the taxes that we
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all pay you guys get it now government
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though it's kind of a unique business
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because well one we can't really opt out
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of being the government's customers
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unless we choose to move to a different
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city a different state a different
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country we can choose to exit the
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government that we're in but as long as
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we're here you're part of it we can
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partake in government though through
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voting or through running for office we
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can aim to change the laws for Revenue
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collection and spending if we want to
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that really is probably the biggest
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debate on a recurring basis in
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government how many taxes how much tax
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should we collect and then what should
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we spend it on that's one of the biggest
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roles of any elected official how much
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money is the government going to spend
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what are we spending it on and how will
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that affect John Q Public's tax bill so
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that brings us to today's topic the debt
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ceiling now the topic has been all over
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the news let's try to explain the whole
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debt sealing drama in simple terms now
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first I'm going to address four somewhat
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related questions what is the debt
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ceiling why does the debt ceiling exist
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why are we in debt in the first place
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and how does this debt continue to grow
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so the US government is in debt lots of
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debt we'll talk a little bit later about
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why that's not ideal but also we'll talk
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about why it's not as bad as if you were
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in debt in your household right now the
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US is approaching 32 trillion that's
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trillion with the T $ 32 trillion doll
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of debt and it's only going to go up at
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least for the near term it's only going
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to go up we're in debt because well at
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least for each of the last 22 years the
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federal government has spent more money
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on the schools on its roads and on lots
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and lots of other things it's spent more
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money than it has collected in taxes we
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operated in other words in an annual
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deficit the reason why I mentioned 22
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years earlier is because there were some
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times in the late 2000s or sorry the
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late '90s early 2000s when the US
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government operated at an annual Sur
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plus it was still in debt but the debt
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was shrinking now for the last 22 years
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not only have we been in debt but the
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debt has been growing year over year
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over year we've been operating at an
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annual deficit and to make up the
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difference between the tax that were
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collecting and the money that we're
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spending the government has borrowed
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that money we've gone into debt the debt
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has now grown $32
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trillion well there comes a question
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then can the government go further and
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further and further into into debt and
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the answer there is not exactly Congress
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determines our Congress determines they
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vote for how far into debt were allowed
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to go that limit is called ding ding
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ding the debt ceiling okay it was first
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enacted in 1941 and the first debt
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ceiling was set at 65 billion with a B
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$65 billion but as our country grew and
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as our country borrowed more Congress
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has voted time after time to raise the
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debt ceiling in fact there have been
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more than 90 unique Congressional votes
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to raise the debt ceiling but that vote
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isn't always easy some politicians they
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look at the situation and they think
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well aren't we in enough debt already
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why do we continue to operate at an
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annual deficit why are we spending more
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than we're collecting in taxes if we let
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this thing go on forever surely we'll
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get into trouble at some point you can't
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just go into debt forever and then they
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conclude and they say well I refuse to
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continue to enable this kind of Reckless
00:16:00
financial behavior and trust me I
00:16:04
understand that logic we'll get into a
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little bit later again we we'll talk
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about why that US debt isn't quite the
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same as your household debt and when
00:16:12
politicians try to frame it that way
00:16:14
they're not quite being honest but at
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the same time I do think there's a lot
00:16:18
of Merit in our government instead of
00:16:21
operating in an annual deficit trying to
00:16:23
operate at a surplus or at the very
00:16:25
least just trying to break even if
00:16:27
you're only collecting 4 trillion in
00:16:29
taxes maybe you should only spend 4
00:16:32
trillion that year but anyway when
00:16:34
enough politicians are thinking that way
00:16:37
when they're thinking about that they
00:16:38
don't want to continue enabling this bad
00:16:41
financial behavior some form of a debt
00:16:44
ciling standoff occurs because the
00:16:47
treasury says hey guys we need to raise
00:16:49
the debt ceiling in order to go further
00:16:51
into debt and politicians will say no
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we're not going to vote for it you're
00:16:56
spending too much we're sick of it
00:16:59
so without permission to go further into
00:17:01
debt the federal government would be
00:17:03
forced to stop most of its daily
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operations and that was the risk that we
00:17:08
were facing here in 2023 it's not the
00:17:10
first time we've seen such a standoff it
00:17:12
happened in 1995 1996 and that resulted
00:17:16
in the federal government shutting down
00:17:17
twice for 5 and 21 days respectively it
00:17:21
happened in 2011 although the government
00:17:22
didn't shut down however it was
00:17:25
important to note that us sovereign
00:17:27
creditworthiness
00:17:29
was downgraded and the stock market took
00:17:30
a significant hit okay what does
00:17:32
sovereign creditworthiness mean well it
00:17:34
means that other governments and other
00:17:36
bodies and Pension funds and investors
00:17:39
all over the world they look at the US
00:17:41
government and they say how good of a
00:17:43
creditor is the US or or rather how good
00:17:47
is the us at paying us back if we give
00:17:49
them credit if we lend to the US
00:17:52
government are they going to pay us back
00:17:54
on time now historically the answer has
00:17:56
always been yes the US government is
00:17:58
still looked at as one of the the best
00:18:01
bodies to lend to anywhere on Earth but
00:18:03
in 2011 that was temporarily like it
00:18:06
came into question and the US debt was
00:18:08
was downgraded and that affected
00:18:10
investment markets so in summary the
00:18:14
debt seiling even though it didn't cause
00:18:15
the government to shut down those debt
00:18:17
sealing issues did cause ripples
00:18:19
throughout the financial World there was
00:18:21
another standoff in 2013 resulting in a
00:18:24
16-day shutdown there was another
00:18:26
standoff back in 2021 it did not result
00:18:29
in a shutdown a government shutdown and
00:18:31
then we had our debt cealing standoff
00:18:33
here in 2023 so the next common question
00:18:36
where do politicians stand we already
00:18:38
went into that a little bit fiscally
00:18:40
conservative politicians usually on the
00:18:43
right-wing Republican party they're
00:18:45
typically opposed to raising the debt
00:18:47
ceiling or if anyone were to be opposed
00:18:49
to raising the debt ceiling usually it
00:18:51
would come from the fiscally
00:18:53
conservative politicians they in general
00:18:55
want to see less government spending for
00:18:58
many reasons and they see government
00:19:00
overspending as a root cause of US debt
00:19:02
in the first place which I think makes
00:19:04
sense US government spending is the
00:19:06
cause of of our debt that or a lack of
00:19:09
Taxation that said no one really wants
00:19:11
to raise taxes right that's actually
00:19:14
taxation was one of the things on the
00:19:16
negotiating table here in 2023 between
00:19:18
speaker McCarthy and President Joe Biden
00:19:21
was the idea of well if we want to solve
00:19:23
some of our debt issues we could just
00:19:25
raise taxes now generally right-wing
00:19:28
politicians are against taxes they want
00:19:31
lower taxes and also a smaller
00:19:33
government so the idea of raising taxes
00:19:36
kind of didn't didn't was quickly
00:19:37
chopped it hit the chopping block pretty
00:19:40
quickly off negotiating table but anyway
00:19:43
fiscally conservative politicians
00:19:44
they're the ones who see raising the
00:19:46
debt ceiling as further enabling a
00:19:48
behavior that they want to see
00:19:52
changed next question how can we allow
00:19:55
this debt to continue to grow and at the
00:19:58
same same time we should answer how the
00:20:00
US debt is fundamentally different than
00:20:03
household debt so the US debt is not
00:20:05
like your debt government spending is
00:20:08
not like your spending and there are a
00:20:10
few examples to show and explain this
00:20:13
the first one government spending is
00:20:15
hugely stimulative for the economy as
00:20:19
such when the government reduces its
00:20:20
spending employment and wages fall both
00:20:23
for the public sector so that's nurses
00:20:24
and teachers police officers but also
00:20:27
for sectors that you know private sector
00:20:29
companies that provide goods and
00:20:31
services to government an example there
00:20:33
might be construction so reductions in
00:20:35
government spending when the econ
00:20:37
especially when the economy is already
00:20:39
underperforming it can actually lead to
00:20:42
higher levels of public debt and lower
00:20:44
growth it can make the situation worse
00:20:47
in other words and that's not really
00:20:49
something that would happen in your in
00:20:50
your household if you reduce your
00:20:53
personal spending to get yourself out of
00:20:55
debt it's not also going to reduce your
00:20:58
income at your job at least most of the
00:21:01
time for most jobs right your salary is
00:21:03
your salary and your spending is your
00:21:05
spending and there's really not too much
00:21:07
interaction between the two as far as
00:21:09
your spending somehow influencing your
00:21:12
salary but with the government that's
00:21:14
what what we're saying here is that's
00:21:15
not really true when the government
00:21:17
spends it often stimulates the economy
00:21:20
in a positive way and that creates tax
00:21:22
dollars for the government to then
00:21:23
collect
00:21:24
later that's fundamentally different
00:21:26
from the way your household works
00:21:28
another important point is that unlike a
00:21:30
household the government has the
00:21:33
powerful backing of a central bank
00:21:35
behind it if the government and the
00:21:37
Central Bank cooperate the central bank
00:21:39
can help lower interest rates or
00:21:41
borrowing costs against the government's
00:21:44
debt and that's that's pretty good if if
00:21:47
you're going to go into $32 trillion of
00:21:49
debt it's nice to have a friend who can
00:21:51
help control the interest rate of that
00:21:53
debt and speaking of interest rates many
00:21:55
governments including the US government
00:21:57
it has invested vors every day waiting
00:22:00
to lend them money at relatively
00:22:03
reasonable rates every time that a bond
00:22:06
is issued at well right now at four or
00:22:09
5% that's someone lending their money to
00:22:12
the US government people are lined up
00:22:14
there's an auction every day of US
00:22:17
Treasury bonds people waiting to let the
00:22:19
US government borrow their money why
00:22:22
because the US government has reputation
00:22:23
of paying back those loans on time with
00:22:26
interest and people like the way that
00:22:28
sounds your household does not have that
00:22:31
you do not have people lined up at your
00:22:33
door waiting to lend you money at
00:22:35
reasonable rates if they're lined up at
00:22:37
your door to lend you money they're
00:22:38
going to lend it at unreasonable rates
00:22:41
so big difference between the US debt
00:22:44
and and your personal debt and
00:22:46
ultimately you know at the end of the
00:22:47
day the US government has the ability to
00:22:50
print its own currency now that would be
00:22:52
really bad if we printed our way out of
00:22:55
debt that would lead to rampant global
00:22:58
inflation so we don't really want to do
00:23:00
that at least not in the short term we
00:23:03
don't want to do it all at once but a
00:23:06
lot of our treasury bonds are long-term
00:23:08
20 30-year bonds and over the long run
00:23:12
that is essentially the plan of how
00:23:14
we're going to get out of debt inflation
00:23:16
is going to occur we know it's going to
00:23:18
occur there's nothing we can do to stop
00:23:20
it and it's not occurring simply because
00:23:21
we are printing money but in the long
00:23:24
run dollars will be devalued slowly but
00:23:27
Sur early and paying back debt becomes
00:23:29
easier and easier and easier that's a
00:23:31
little bit different than the way that
00:23:33
your household debt works at least most
00:23:35
of it maybe the one way that there is a
00:23:38
similarity speaking of 30-year loans is
00:23:41
uh a mortgage a mortgage in some way is
00:23:44
maybe the closest thing where we can tie
00:23:47
US debt to household debt because with a
00:23:49
mortgage I just got a 30-year mortgage
00:23:52
last month so I can speak to this
00:23:53
example I've got a couple thoughts there
00:23:56
one is I'm hoping that my career grow
00:23:59
over the next 30 Years and that's
00:24:01
similar to the way that the US is hoping
00:24:03
that its economy and therefore its tax
00:24:05
based grow over the next 30 Years but
00:24:08
also there's likely to be inflation over
00:24:10
the next 30 years and that will affect
00:24:13
my salary in a good way right you will
00:24:15
earn more dollars simply because
00:24:17
inflation is occurring but my debt
00:24:19
payment on my mortgage is fixed and
00:24:22
similarly the government's payment on
00:24:24
its debt is fixed it's a fixed rate debt
00:24:26
now the debt might be growing but each
00:24:28
individual bond has a fixed rate so the
00:24:30
government is banking on the fact that
00:24:32
it'll have more taxes and that inflation
00:24:35
will also Drive its tax base up over the
00:24:38
coming decades making today's loans
00:24:40
easier to
00:24:41
[Music]
00:24:47
repay so the next question we've already
00:24:50
kind of touched on it but it's a
00:24:51
question that I've heard quite a bit
00:24:52
over the last couple weeks is if the
00:24:54
government is in $32 trillion of debt
00:24:57
then who is lending them all this money
00:24:59
or who do we owe the $32 trillion back
00:25:02
to and the answer is tons of people
00:25:06
everybody well I shouldn't say everybody
00:25:08
but it's tons of people all over Earth
00:25:10
it's individuals institutions Pension
00:25:13
funds other governments anyone on Earth
00:25:15
who owns a US Government Bond or a bill
00:25:19
or a note is lending money to the US
00:25:21
government because as we've discussed on
00:25:23
the best interest before a bond is
00:25:25
nothing more than a loan when you buy a
00:25:27
bond you are loaning your money to
00:25:29
someone and in return they are promising
00:25:32
you interest payments and then a full
00:25:34
repayment at the end of the loan term
00:25:36
that's all a bond is every day the US
00:25:39
government issues Bonds in an auction
00:25:41
those bonds are gobbled up by Major
00:25:42
Banks and brokerage firms who then sell
00:25:44
them on the secondary Market all over
00:25:46
the world investing in US debt is big
00:25:49
big
00:25:50
business okay what would happen if the
00:25:53
debt ceiling wasn't raised well if it
00:25:56
wasn't raised a few things could Could
00:25:57
Happen some of them are immediate
00:25:59
effects and then some of them are
00:26:01
long-term Ripple effects some of the
00:26:04
immediate effects would be that the
00:26:05
federal government would likely shut
00:26:07
down until hopefully Congress is able to
00:26:10
find a solution in the short run most
00:26:13
federal jobs would be temporarily
00:26:15
furloughed and unpaid Federal contracts
00:26:18
would be paused and again that kind of
00:26:19
goes into that ripple effect of it's not
00:26:21
just public sector it's also private
00:26:23
sector because a lot of federal
00:26:25
contracts are given to private sector
00:26:27
contracts factors another kind of scary
00:26:30
thing that might happen is Social
00:26:31
Security payments and then Medicare or
00:26:33
Medicaid payments might be paused now
00:26:36
that's a way to piss off a generation of
00:26:38
baby boomers right there and you got to
00:26:41
believe that Congress would get their
00:26:42
ass in gear if they had millions of
00:26:45
people calling them saying where the
00:26:46
hell is my Social Security payment now
00:26:50
another thing that would happen a longer
00:26:51
term thing that would probably happen if
00:26:54
we weren't able to come to terms in this
00:26:55
debt sealing crisis although maybe it's
00:26:57
a short-term either way it would have
00:26:59
long-term ripples is that the US might
00:27:01
miss or delay its Bond repayments and
00:27:04
the US credit worthiness might get
00:27:06
downgraded again now we've already
00:27:08
talked about this a little bit US
00:27:09
Treasury bonds are considered the safest
00:27:11
investment in the world because
00:27:12
historically the US has always paid its
00:27:15
debts a debt sealing crisis could
00:27:18
potentially delay the speed at which the
00:27:20
US repays its debts and that's a problem
00:27:23
is the US still the safest investment in
00:27:26
the world at that point do investors
00:27:28
need to be more concerned now that could
00:27:30
have far-reaching and mostly detrimental
00:27:33
effects on bond markets and stock
00:27:34
markets all over the world Warren
00:27:36
Buffett talked about how interest rates
00:27:38
are Financial gravity affecting all
00:27:40
financial instruments everywhere on
00:27:42
Earth then another famous quote is when
00:27:45
the US economy sneezes the world catches
00:27:47
a cold in other words the US economy and
00:27:51
US debt us bonds they're vital drivers
00:27:54
and influencers on the rest of the
00:27:55
planet so if us bonds are questioned
00:27:59
surely that would affect the global
00:28:01
financial markets and the global economy
00:28:04
in most likely a negative way we will
00:28:07
conclude this episode with the update
00:28:10
that you might already know which is
00:28:11
that Congress suspended the debt ceiling
00:28:13
altogether until 2025 in years past or
00:28:16
or previous negotiations they raised the
00:28:19
debt ceiling to a specific dollar amount
00:28:21
but in this case they said eh we're
00:28:23
going to kick the can down the road
00:28:25
we'll talk about it again in a couple
00:28:26
years and so that's exactly what they're
00:28:28
going to
00:28:30
do thanks for tuning in to this episode
00:28:32
of the best interest podcast if you have
00:28:35
a question for Jesse to answer on a
00:28:36
future episode send him an email at
00:28:38
Jesse bestin interest. blog again that's
00:28:42
Jesse ATB bestin interest. blog did you
00:28:45
enjoy the show subscribe rate and review
00:28:48
the podcast wherever you listen this
00:28:50
helps others find the show and invest in
00:28:53
knowledge themselves and we really
00:28:55
appreciate it we'll catch you on the
00:28:56
next episode of the best interest
00:28:59
[Music]
00:29:01
podcast the best interest podcast is a
00:29:04
personal podcast meant for education and
00:29:06
entertainment it should not be taken as
00:29:08
Financial advice and is not prescriptive
00:29:10
of your financial
00:29:12
situation
