Debt Crisis: US ‘almost out of time’ for deal: Obama

WASHINGTON: Spurred on by President Barack Obama, US lawmakers on Saturday dove into a frantic beat-the-clock weekend effort to avert a debt default that could plunge the world economy into recession. In a grim warning of what may come if there is no breakthrough by a midnight Tuesday deadline, US markets fell for a fifth straight day on Friday — a month of gains wiped out in a week due to poor US growth and the political stalemate. Obama tried to inject a note of optimism to deadlocked Washington early Saturday, insisting in his radio address that there were significant areas of agreement between Democrats and Republicans. “Look, the parties are not that far apart here,” the president argued.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2011.