The federal government is likely to reach its statutory debt limit some time in January 2013. Here are the five things you need to know about the U.S. national debt.

Today, the Treasury Department announced that for the first time ever, the United States’ national debt surpassed $16 trillion. Talk about a not-so-sweet 16.

When purchasing large amounts of U.S. debt, you generally must use a primary dealer to bid on that debt at Treasury auctions. Many of the primary dealers are large firms and banks on Wall Street. But not all of them. Since mid-2011, China has been purchasing U.S. debt directly from the Treasury Department.

A roundup of this morning’s must-read budget and economic stories.

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Treasury’s is considering issuing floating-rate 2-year bonds. As a point of reference, the last time the government issued a new type of government debt was in 1997.