In a letter to lawmakers today, Janet Yellen says the Treasury Department's "best estimate" is that its extraordinary accounting measures will no longer be able to satisfy all the government's obligations by early June.
With inflation heading downward, the debate is now shifting to what happens after this fight is over— and the risks of getting it wrong are high, both economically and politically.
U.S. inflation data suggests price pressures have peaked, giving financial markets hope that the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes will soon pause.
Analysts predict that slowing population growth will present "a number of economic challenges" over the next 50 years, such as paying for rising healthcare costs for aging populations.