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?
Joe Hockey has negotiated a deal with The Greens.
AAP/Daniel Munoz
The government today clinched a deal with the Greens to scrap the debt ceiling, in exchange for undertaking to provide detailed information and schedule regular parliamentary debates on the subject. The…
Rudd’s zip gives Shorten an early electoral test.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The spectacular story ran for a nanosecond. Kevin Rudd had allegedly done a deal for daughter Jessica to get preselection for the seat he is vacating. It would have been the ultimate Ruddism. Jess immediately…
While the US government remains shut down, the long game for Republicans like Speaker John Boehner remains the debt ceiling crisis.
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
The US government shutdown is in its second week, but attention in the country has shifted elsewhere: to the looming debt ceiling crisis. On October 17, the US runs out of money to pay its bills. Both…
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will need to write the book on technical and ethical challenges if no agreement is reached on raising the debt ceiling.
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
Financial markets must be confident that the US will not default on its sovereign debt, otherwise those markets would have plummeted by now. But is that confidence justified? Markets participants are comforted…
Odds are Republicans will decide to, once again, raise the debt ceiling rather than face sovereign default. But what lies beyond the vote for Obama?
AAP
Most commentary on the US government shutdown concerns the apparent disregard some pigheaded Republicans have for the harm it could do to the American and global economies. While the shutdown will likely…
By opting for restraint in his state of the union speech, Obama presented his ideas not as bold initiatives to revive the liberal tradition, but as pragmatic proposals with widespread bipartisan support.
EPA
Barack Obama opened his fourth state of the union address to Congress with words from another Democratic president, John Kennedy: “The Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…
It may seem like an idea with currency, but miinting a trillion dollar coin to sidestep the debt ceiling is a fabricated solution to a fabricated crisis.
Wikimedia Commons
In the midst of genuine economic and political challenges, Tea Party Republicans have been hard at work generating additional problems. From the debt-ceiling showdown that cost the US its AAA credit rating…
Without serious, structural fiscal reforms — which require bipartisanship and compromise — the US economy could go into free fall.
Bungee jump image from www.shutterstock.com
As we check our political calendars, many look to November 6 as the crucial date that will determine the future direction for US politics and the nation’s ailing economy. But in policy terms, it is January…