Frantic deal-making over the weekend appears to have clinched a $2.4 trillion US debt ceiling deal, with $900 billion in initial spending cuts and the rest to be determined by a committee over the autumn. The White House has the official statement here. There’s still a chance the deal will fail in the House, but
With less than a week to go before America’s August second debt ceiling deadline, negotiations have broken down. Nonetheless, a deal will almost certainly be done. The markets seem convinced, and it’s inconceivable to most observers that the US would arbitrarily default on its obligations (whether to bondholders, pensioners, or employees). Inconceivable, however, is not
While British papers have, naturally, focused on the eurozone’s slow-motion implosion— and, of course, a Westminster media story—America has been flirting with economic Armageddon. After months of phony negotiations over the government debt ceiling, the deadline is less than two weeks away. Without an agreement by August 2nd the US government will have to
It was a busy weekend for euro-crisis observers. Mario Draghi, an Italian member of the European Central Bank, was finally appointed as its new President; Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, acknowledged that the European sovereign debt crisis is a ‘material threat’ to British banks; David Cameron announced that Sir Jon Cunliffe, a
The referendum results haven’t even been announced yet, but the Yes campaign’s myth-making machine is already in full swing. Within moments of the polls closing, Simon Hughes took to the airwaves to dismiss a No vote as a “hollow victory” because of our “false facts and false figures”. Just as some people on the left
After a difficult few weeks for the Big Society, culminating in Liverpool’s nakedly political ‘withdrawal’ from the vanguard projects, Peter Oborne has already drafted an obituary for the Conservative’s policy agenda. As Oborne says, the Big Society goes to the heart of this government’s reason for existence, and its (real or perceived) failure would
Last week’s Localism Bill introduced a range of novel measures, from elected mayors to local referendums. We’ve put together a list of Ten Things You Need To Know about it, by way of a primer for CoffeeHousers. The bill marks an important leap into the unknown. The dangers are less political – it’s hard for
Amidst the Democrats’ doom and gloom over the US midterm elections, there is one race that will give Obama hope, and it is in the world’s 8th largest economy: California. The state’s once and would-be future Governor, Jerry Brown, looks set for a comfortable win over Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay. Recent polls
