US has never defaulted on its debt and they say they don't want it to happen now. But with partisan acrimony at fever pitch, the unthinkable is suddenly being pondered.

at least until early July with creative bookkeeping. When the House first rejected the Bush administration's $600-billion bank bailout in September 2008, the Dow Jones industrials went into a dizzying 778-point tailspin. A whiff of a possible similar...