
Oh, by the way, we’re hitting the debt ceiling five days from now, on December 31, Timothy Geithner casually informed congressional leaders in a letter today. Fortunately, given Congress’s seeming inability to agree not to destroy the economy, the Treasury Department will be taking “extraordinary measures” to extend the deadline for a few weeks, into February or March. If GOP lawmakers can’t be convinced to raise the debt ceiling, the economy will likely nosedive again, assuming a million other things don’t cause it to first.