The stalemate between US President Barack Obama's administration and Republican- majority House of Representatives over raising America's debt ceiling has partly shut down the federal government since Oct 1. On Oct 10, Obama rejected Republicans' offer of increasing the debt ceiling for six weeks, aiming to push the negotiations' deadline to around Thanksgiving.

On Oct 13, members of the Senate, the upper house of Congress, did make some progress during their talks but they could not reach a deal. On Oct 17, the US government will hit the ceiling mandated by Congress on how much it can borrow to fulfill its financial commitments.

New York's Bryant Park has a giant electronic screen displaying the "national debt clock". The clock was designed and installed in 1989 by Seymour Durst, a New York real estate developer, who was worried about the rising national debt and shows the changes in the US' national debt over the years. According to the clock's reading the total US national debt was near $16.97 trillion on Oct 16, 2013, compared with $2.87 trillion in 1989.