Wall Street to Congress: Raise the Debt Limit

Wall Street executives are very concerned about the ramifications if Congress fails to pass an increase to the $14.3 debt limit. And they are expressing their worries to Congress, Politico reports. The main concern is that failure to lift the debt ceiling would cause a default on U.S. government debt, triggering a financial crisis.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that without an increase, the government could hit its debt limit May 16.

Then the Treasury could take emergency steps to keep making interest payments on government debt until about July 8. At that point, they would be out of options.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon “is passionate about this and has spoken out about it,” a senior financial executive told Politico.

“Others would [speak out] but understand what an enormous political cauldron this is,” he added.