For all the concern over just when the government might run short of money to pay its bills, it turns out that no one, not even the U.S. treasury secretary, can be absolutely sure exactly when the country faces a potential default — what officials are calling the “X-date.”
Calculating when the country is going to run out of money requires monitoring major fluctuations in cash flowing into and out of the Treasury and factoring in the timing and size of big payments coming due, among other factors.
