Scheme, stonewall and fulminate

摘要

"We're in the eleventh hour," declared Barack Obama this week, referring to the short time remaining before federal borrowing reaches the limit imposed by Congress, forcing a default. Yet it is not too late, in the eyes of many congressmen at least, to introduce elaborate new schemes to avert calamity. A bipartisan group of senators unveiled one shortly before the president spoke. The leadership of the House of Representatives and their counterparts in the Senate, meanwhile, are each pushing their own plans. But it is not clear that any of these have the votes to get through Congress by August 2nd, when the Treasury says it will run out of accounting manoeuvres and simply stop paying some bills (it has not said which). That, in turn, could throw the global financial system into disarray, and further weaken America's sickly economy.