This is on the media's midweek podcast, and I'm Brooke Gladstone.

While the Democrats fight amongst themselves over their legislative agenda,

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is locked in battle with minority leader Mitch McConnell

over raising the country's debt ceiling.

Democrats need 10 Senate Republicans to vote with them to raise the debt limit by October 18th, or else the country could, as the Washington

Post put it, catapult into an economic recession. The New York Times, too, noted widespread

warnings of global economic calamity.

The government could run out of money by October 18th if Congress doesn't raise the debt limit,

the amount the government can borrow to pay its bills.

800,000 federal workers and more than a million contractors are waiting to see if they'll be

furloughed if Congress can't reach a deal to fund the government past Thursday night.

And Republicans in Congress raised the debt three times when Donald Trump was president

and each time with Democrat support. But now they won't raise it.

For years, the media have treated the perennial debt-sealing debate like hurricane season.

When will calamity strike?

What's the projected damage?

Why do we have to keep reliving this crisis in the first place?

Zachary Carabelle is author of the podcast What Could Go Right?

And President of River Twice Capital.

He's also the author of The Leading Indicators, a short history of the numbers that rule our world.

I spoke to him in 2017 about the debt ceiling.

So the debt ceiling's created 100 years ago. We're like at the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve and the 100th anniversary of the debt ceiling. So the debt ceiling's created 100 years ago. We're like at the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve and the 100th anniversary of the debt ceiling.

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