US hits debt ceiling, begins pullback

The US Treasury warned of economic catastrophe Monday as it ran into its $14.29 trillion ceiling on borrowings and began short-term measures to delay breaching the limit. In a letter to US Senate leader Harry Reid, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the country had reached the statutory debt limit as of Monday and was initiating a "debt issuance suspension period" to keep from going over it.
Geithner urged Congress to raise the ceiling "in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic consequences for citizens." To avoid topping the ceiling, the government would halt the automatic cycling of civil service pension funds into US Treasury debt, the way they are traditionally stored, he said.