Time getting tougher for the US economy
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Fazle Rashid from New York
President Bush addressing the UN general assembly the other day strongly rebuked the Congress for delaying the passage of the $700 billion-bail out package to salvage the collapsing economy. How bad is the US economy could be gauged by the fact that Bank of America refused Tuesday to advance loans to world famous fast food chains McDonald.
With uncertainty looming large over the government bailout package, there was panic and alarm in the Wall Street. The bourses made a nosedive last Tuesday, loosing 200 points.
Barack Obama, Democratic party presidential hopeful, warned that damaged done to the US economy would take years to repair. The next incumbent in the White House will have his hands tight with a bailout package of $700 billion dollar and a federal budget deficit of over $400 billion.
The prospects of foreign assistance could not be more gloomier than now. The UN, before the economic catastrophe set in, said the deadline of millennium development goals (MDGs) will not be met. The UN had set 2015 by which to cut global poverty by half.
The United States being the largest contributors to the multilareal agencies like the UN, IMF, World Bank and its own wing of the USAID will obviously fail to meet its commitment. The United States in the best of times remain far short of its commitment. Funds are drying up. So any developing country hit by a natural calamity will face trying times with foreign assistance hard to come by.
President Bush addressing the UN general assembly the other day strongly rebuked the Congress for delaying the passage of the $700 billion-bail out package to salvage the collapsing economy. How bad is the US economy could be gauged by the fact that Bank of America refused Tuesday to advance loans to world famous fast food chains McDonald.
With uncertainty looming large over the government bailout package, there was panic and alarm in the Wall Street. The bourses made a nosedive last Tuesday, loosing 200 points.
Barack Obama, Democratic party presidential hopeful, warned that damaged done to the US economy would take years to repair. The next incumbent in the White House will have his hands tight with a bailout package of $700 billion dollar and a federal budget deficit of over $400 billion.
The prospects of foreign assistance could not be more gloomier than now. The UN, before the economic catastrophe set in, said the deadline of millennium development goals (MDGs) will not be met. The UN had set 2015 by which to cut global poverty by half.
The United States being the largest contributors to the multilareal agencies like the UN, IMF, World Bank and its own wing of the USAID will obviously fail to meet its commitment. The United States in the best of times remain far short of its commitment. Funds are drying up. So any developing country hit by a natural calamity will face trying times with foreign assistance hard to come by.