Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, May 22nd, and today we are discussing President Biden defaulting on the U.S. debt to own the crypto bros.

Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation,

come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, the president has gone and again made the debt ceiling political

for the crypto crowd. And so today we are diverting temporarily from our normal Bitcoin and

crypto industry coverage

to move into the most significant market issue right now, which is the debt ceiling debate.

This will serve as a bit of a primer.

I will avoid the temptation to get political with it, as always.

And we'll just try to understand exactly where we are going into this critical week.

Right now, the debt ceiling is currently

at nearly $31.4 trillion, with around $24.6 trillion held as bonds by investors, private institutions,

and other market actors. The U.S. debt is the largest of any nation state, exceeding the amount

currently outstanding for the next four countries combined.

In mid-January, the limit of borrowing was reached, leading the U.S. Treasury to begin what's known

as extraordinary measures to stretch the remaining cash a little further.

These measures trim budget expenditure around the edges by deferring time-and-sensitive spending,

such as making contributions into government worker savings plans

and topping up the assets held in the Exchange Stabilization Fund.

Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that despite these measures,

the Treasury looked set to run out of cash by the beginning of next month, leaving officials

...