Party Movement Have Insisted

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday warned Congress that putting off a decision on the fate of expiring Bush administration tax cuts could unsettle businesses and households, undercutting the U.S. economic recovery. With presidential and congressional elections looming in November, many analysts think Congress is unlikely to act until the final months of the year. The tax cuts expire on January 1. Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee that lawmakers might not have the luxury of waiting. "I don't know exactly when the uncertainty would become a factor, but surely as we get closer to January 1 and Congress has not given a clear road map for how it plans to proceed, that would certainly affect planning, business decisions, household decisions, as they look ...

(Reuters) - After months of vitriolic discord, Republican and Democratic lawmakers were expected to vote on Monday on a White House-backed deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented default. The Democratic-led Senate is expected to pass the deal which raises the debt ceiling and cuts about $2.4 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. But it may face tougher opposition in the House of Representatives where both conservative Tea Party supporters and liberal lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement. While the deal comes just in time to avoid a catastrophic default, Washington and investors will be closely watching to see if it goes far enough to convince credit rating agencies to let the United States keep its coveted triple-A credit rating. ...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's Democrats and their Republican rivals were further apart than ever on Tuesday in an impasse over the government's debt limit as investors braced for a looming default and downgrade. With a deadline just a week away, the top Republican in Congress pressed his deficit reduction plan toward an expected vote on Wednesday. But it appears to have little chance of success in the face of a veto threat from Obama and opposition from fiscal conservatives in his own party. There was no compromise in sight between competing plans to raise the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit to avert a potential default on some of its $9.6 trillion in bonds -- which could push the United States back into recession and send shock waves through global financial markets. ...

(Reuters) - White House officials and Republican leaders scrambled on Sunday to reassure global markets the United States would avert a debt default, but the two sides gave no sign they were moving closer to a deal. White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley warned that there would be a "few stressful days" ahead for financial markets, with the deadline to lift the $14.3 trillion U.S. borrowing limit now only nine days away. Daley, appearing on the CBS television program "Face the Nation, quickly added: "In the end there's no question in my mind the government of America will not default." But the path forward toward a deal was murky. With Asian markets set to open in a few hours, Democrats and Republicans traded blame for the inability to strike an agreement. The two sides are deadlocked ...

(Reuters) - Rival plans to cut the deficit emerge almost daily: gangs, panels and commissions all trying to reach an elusive deal. There are splits between Republicans and Democrats, and mixed messages from all sides. With pressure mounting in Washington for a budget agreement that can clear a path to raise America's debt limit, only one thing is clear: nobody yet knows how to get there, and a deal appears as far off as ever. "Nobody can get a handle on this because there is no handle," said a veteran Republican strategist. "The overall picture really is as muddied and unclear as it looks. Anybody who says they know what's going to happen here is lying. They don't." The United States is set to reach its $14.3 trillion debt limit on Monday, and will only be able to avoid default until ...

How exactly does one unwind a Ponzi Scheme? People like Bernie Madoff have done a fine job showing investors, and eventually the American public, how to build one up. Essentially, you use the contributions from incoming investors to pay “profits” out to departing investors. And you repeat this process for as long as the incoming checks are larger than the outgoing checks. When the inevitable tipping point finally arrives – and there isn’t enough new money to pay off all the old money – you skip the border and leave your clients waiting for their next share of the profits…and waiting…and waiting. To describe American Social Security as such a scheme wouldn’t be much of a stretch. For a system with so many complicated facets, advanced accounting and half-truths, there is one absolute fact: ...