On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the Senate finally reached an agreement to end the partial government shutdown and halt the posing threat of a U.S. default on the debt ceiling. The agreement pushed through by the Senate calls for the government to reopen until Jan. 15 with there still being government funding and raising the debt limit to Feb 7,this proposal still has to pass through the House and then through President Obama.

 Thursday, Oct. 17, is the date that the U.S. Treasury will run out of measures to keep the government under legal borrowing limits. If an agreement between the Senate, the House and President Obama is not reached by the start of the business day tomorrow, the government could be facing a serious problem. Without having the ability to borrow, the treasury will have to pay out all debts and obligations through the money that they have on hand. It is estimated that the Treasury has $30 billion in cash, as well as any daily revenue. With relying on cash-only handouts, the U.S. government runs the risk of defaulting.

No one can quite be sure how long the Treasury will be able to pay all of its obligations before it runs out of money, but an estimated timeframe for them to run out of money, without any agreement that raises the debt limit, is Oct. 22 through Nov. 1.

Officials worry that creditors such as foreign countries who have holdings on U.S. bonds will want to cash out, and that the government will lack the funds to pay them back.

If a decision is not reached by Oct. 17, Forbes magazine estimates that the government has about a week after that date in order to reach an agreement before they need take on more debt than they already have. Forbes also explains why continuing to raise the debt limit and put off the issue will only create a bigger problem the next time the issue needs to be addressed.

As the time frame for a decision quickly approaches, economists around the world fear that the U.S. reaching the debt ceiling could cause dire consequences across the world. With the ball in the House’s court, the rest of the world sits and waits for their decision before tomorrow hits. 

Information for this article was collected from CNN and Forbes.