Treasury chief Janet Yellen puts debt ceiling chaos into one critical sentence

 

Treasury Secretary Yellen did a depth interview with Bloomberg today, and a big takeaway is this quote:

“There is no satisfactory solution for U.S. that’s good for economy and financial markets other than Congress acting to raise debt ceiling.”

Here are other key notes, and link to video:

– Congress raising the debt ceiling is the only thing that can save the U.S. from considerable economic and financial damage.

– America hasn’t defaulted since 1789 and we shouldn’t start now.

– When asked whether debt would be serviced or not, she said:

– If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, we face financial catastrophe, and I think we can get this done.

– Early-June and potentially as early as June 1 is when we expect this to get done.

– What I’m hearing from bankers is that debt ceiling is a grave source of uncertainty.

– Wall Street executives and American businesspeople have always spoken out about their debt ceiling concerns, and we want to hear voices of people affected by this.

– On bank failures, she said most banks — even those seeing pressure on stock prices — are looking more stable.

– She didn’t address each individual banks, but said the banking system overall is well-capitalized.

– She said Treasury monitors banking situation very closely.