Context
The financial and political crisis facing the United States seems to have deepening. President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner accused each other for not negotiating in good faith to prevent an unprecedented default next week. The effect of a failure to increase the US borrowing ceiling can go beyond its borders and harm the international economy, the IMF chief has warned. In an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday, Christine Lagarde called on US leadership to display the same “political courage” as European leaders showed last week, as they agreed on new initiatives to deal with the regional debt crisis.
