Monday, January 28, 2013

US Facing Fresh Financial Shock



             
According to the Financial Times: The $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that Barack Obama once promised to avert are looking increasingly likely to occur because of entrenched politics in Washington, threatening a shock to confidence in the US economy.

Economists have long assumed that the so-called sequester - a budgetary mechanism passed in 2011 that takes effect on March 1 and slashes the Pentagon's budget by $600bn over 10 years while cutting discretionary spending for government programmes by another $600bn - would be replaced or reversed by Congress.

Many saw a recent move by Republicans on Capitol Hill to extend the US borrowing authority as a sign of greater co-operation with the White House. But conservative lawmakers have recently made it clear that they were simply gearing up for another fight, and are prepared to take a hard line on the $1.2tn in cuts even amid objections from military hawks……

Find out more at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100410660

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