US government near to debt limit

US Treasury Secretary John Snow has told Congress to raise the government's credit limit in order to avoid having some of its operations shut down.The government needs Congressional authority to borrow and the total accumulated debt is now close to its limit of $8.2 trillion (£4.7 trillion). If the limit is not increased, the government could find it difficult to pay debts or borrow money.Congress is expected to agree to an extension, averting any debt crisis.
The government borrow money that they can make better from this. The money include tapping the civil service pension funds and using the $15bn in the Exchange Stabilisation Fund, a reserve held for smoothing out volatile movements in the value of the dollar in currency markets.