As President Biden begins meeting with congressional leaders to resolve the debt ceiling showdown, an economist warns the consequences of a default could be dire.
The US government reached the limits of its borrowing capacity in March and is fast approaching the point at which it will no longer be able to pay all its bills. What’s the big deal?
The first thing you should know about the sequester is that nearly everyone agrees that it’s a bad idea. In fact, that was the point. In the summer of 2011, with congressional Republicans refusing to raise…
Sometimes good policy and good politics are the same thing. By tying together lessons learned from economist John Maynard Keynes and former president Harry Truman, Barack Obama is taking steps that may…
President Barack Obama’s $US447 billion jobs plan appears to be struggling. Republican resistance to some aspects of the rescue deal announced last week - particularly around government spending - was…
Barack Obama has laid out a US$447 billion (A$421 billion) plan to cut payroll taxes and boost government spending to create jobs, in a bid to “jolt” the stalled US economy back to life. Obama told a joint…
The downgrading of US debt by Standard & Poor’s may sound the starting gun for an enduring rebalancing of global economic power. For decades, investors worldwide sought the safety of US government…
Europe is on the decline. The US has its own problems. Meanwhile, China and India appear strong. But is it too soon pick the next global superpower? In this Q+A, Professor Geoffrey Garrett, CEO of the…
Without the firing of a single shot in anger, a country has been, at least in a sense, brought to its economic knees. The capitalist system, with variations and aberrations, is now reacting. Shares are…
“Most importantly it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America. And it will allow us to lift the cloud of doubt and uncertainty.” President Barack…
The Australian share market has followed Wall street overnight and other global markets, with as much as $60 billion wiped in value throughout the day. The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut the forecast…
Despite the apparent disgust of many Americans and the contempt held by many outside observers, US politics is supposed to look this way – at least sometimes. The widely diagnosed dysfunction of the recent…
“A catastrophe on multiple levels.” That’s how New York Times columnist Paul Krugman characterised the US debt deal brokered this week between Democrats and Republicans. President Obama on Tuesday signed…
Although the US debt ceiling crisis has been resolved for now, the saga has obvious implications for developing countries. Yet, as is often the case, political conflict is obscuring the persistent and…
To outsiders looking in, the recent crisis in governance in the United States surrounding the debt ceiling might appear to be a farce, if the stakes were not actually so serious. Until Tuesday (EST), the…