The United States federal government’s default on its debt has been averted — at least for now. On Oct. 7, the Senate voted to increase the debt limit by $480 billion, a sum needed for the world’s biggest borrower to keep paying off its obligations until early December.
The deal secured a temporary resolution for a weeks-long partisan standoff that had investors both within and far beyond the U.S. unsettled. The once unimaginable prospect of a U.S. default seemed more conceivable than ever before.