FINANCIAL TIMES: US budget negotiators on Tuesday night struck a bipartisan deal to set spending levels until 2015, breaking the latest fiscal logjam in Congress and stopping a cycle of crisis-driven economic policy making in Washington.
The agreement is small in size – worth $85bn – but may herald the return of an era in which Congress can perform basic functions without the political brinkmanship that has repeatedly threatened the US economic recovery in recent years.
It will increase spending in the near term, easing the pain of “sequestration” budget cuts that began in March and drew the criticism of the International Monetary Fund for the austerity hit they imposed on many US government agencies… (more)
