WASHINGTON — It might be time for another midnight ride by Paul Revere, this time warning that "the creditors are coming."
Americans seem not to have awakened to the fast-looming debt crisis that could summon a new recession, imperil their stock market investments, and shatter faith in the world's most powerful economy.
Facing an August deadline for raising the country's borrowing limit, politicians and economists are plenty alarmed. The people? Apparently not so much.
They're divided on whether to raise the limit, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that found 41 percent opposed to the idea and 38 percent in favor.
A narrow majority expects an economic crisis to ensue if the United States starts missing interest payments to creditors. But even among that group, 37 percent say no dice to raising the limit.