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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
It’s that magical time of the year again, when we once again worry that the broken US political system will result in the unnecessary sovereign default of the world’s premier reserve asset and usher in financial Ragnarok.
The US budget sausage-making has been overshadowed by the tariff shenanigans, but Treasury secretary Scott Bessent earlier this week helpfully reminded people that his department would soon also have a firm-ish date for when the US government will run out of money.
From Politico on Tuesday:
Bessent said Treasury was still tallying the massive influx of federal tax receipts that came in around the April 15 filing deadline as it works to come up with a more precise forecast for when the U.S. will exhaust its borrowing capacity — known as the X-date.
The date is widely seen as a de facto…
