Budget negotiations in the US Congress are pushing too closely against the deadline for the rescheduling of the national debt. The United States is presently in hoc to an amount resembling this. I am not sure how many noughts – or zeroes – this is.

All of this is too close to a debt or payment default for the comfort of the nation, let alone the rest of the global economy. The BBC’s economics editor Stephanie Flanders explains more about why this is happening here.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

Reasons underlying the argument include furnishing and maintaining the largest military establishment known to the world, several long term expensive wars, repeated tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens, the ongoing costs of social security and medicare plus the recent and urgent need to subsidise the global financial industry.

Pity the poor swine who is allowed to pilot this process to a safe harbour.