Senate passes $446.8b spending package
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Dec 14: The US Senate yesterday passed a spending package amounting to $446.8 billion that will keep the government running until the next budget due in September. Democrats are deeply divided over efforts to substantially raise the federal debt limit before the Congress goes for a long recess.
The lawmakers are insisting that the government should rein in the deficit or they would block a large increase in the debt limit. Failure to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit to cover federal borrowing could lead to a technical government default, the New York Times said.
Also awaiting Senate approval is a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure. Bond vigilantees are worried. They are pressing governments to cut budget deficit that have ballooned aftermath the financial crisis. The bond traders after remaining in hibernation during the whole period of economic boom have surfaced now buying up government debts all over the world. Bond traders are now demanding higher interest rates from countries with large budget gaps.
Paul A Samuelson, the first American to win Nobel prize in Economics breathed his last yesterday. He was 94. His book "Economics" published in 1948 and translated into 20 languages was a roaring success.
Samuelson had repeatedly declined to accept government since the days of John Kennedy.
Samuelson attracted a large of economists to Harvard University many of whom also won Nobel for Economics. The include Robert Solow, George Akerlof, Robert Engle, Lawrence Klein, Paul Krugman, Franco Modigliani, Robert Merton and Joseph Stiglitz.
NEW YORK, Dec 14: The US Senate yesterday passed a spending package amounting to $446.8 billion that will keep the government running until the next budget due in September. Democrats are deeply divided over efforts to substantially raise the federal debt limit before the Congress goes for a long recess.
The lawmakers are insisting that the government should rein in the deficit or they would block a large increase in the debt limit. Failure to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit to cover federal borrowing could lead to a technical government default, the New York Times said.
Also awaiting Senate approval is a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure. Bond vigilantees are worried. They are pressing governments to cut budget deficit that have ballooned aftermath the financial crisis. The bond traders after remaining in hibernation during the whole period of economic boom have surfaced now buying up government debts all over the world. Bond traders are now demanding higher interest rates from countries with large budget gaps.
Paul A Samuelson, the first American to win Nobel prize in Economics breathed his last yesterday. He was 94. His book "Economics" published in 1948 and translated into 20 languages was a roaring success.
Samuelson had repeatedly declined to accept government since the days of John Kennedy.
Samuelson attracted a large of economists to Harvard University many of whom also won Nobel for Economics. The include Robert Solow, George Akerlof, Robert Engle, Lawrence Klein, Paul Krugman, Franco Modigliani, Robert Merton and Joseph Stiglitz.