America has moved from one catastrophe to another with the deal reached overnight (31 Jul 2011) to raise its debt ceiling.

The agreement, which includes around $2.5tn of spending cuts over the next decade, will probably not save America's triple-A credit rating. Because.....

Many economists believe that America could soon lose its triple-A credit rating, in spite of the deal.

Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, recently said that a credible fiscal plan would need to include $4tn of deficit-reduction measures.

Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning US economist, said....
"The deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America's long-term deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana republic status."