Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, regarded by many as the ablest businessman in Eisenhower's "business administration," has also fallen heir to the toughest problems. Last week he wrestled with the toughest one yet: how to keep the world's biggest business from going technically "broke." Congress' refusal to raise the $275 billion limit on the U.S. debt (TIME, Aug. 10) made it entirely possible that Humphrey would not have adequate means to pay the Government's bills.
Humphrey had many volunteer advisers who assured him that the problem was not really as bad as it looked. Noting that federal spending in July was $674...