The fact that the US political system could allow parts of the Government services to be shut down, while the politicians butted heads constantly over the manner in which they deal with their debt mountain has embarassed President Obama no end and indeed the American populace, as their leaders demonstrate an inability to pull together in times of crisis.

The "chips" have been down and the US Government needed to fund massive debt repayments due this week but were still horse trading around as to how they go about reducing the debt pile yesterday. Obama eventually signed the bill that has allowed the additional borrowing in the early hours of Thursday morning and global markets are expected to rise as the unthinkable spectre of a US default disappears - for now.

The forced agreement has has extended the Government's ability to borrow funds to meet debt repayment obligations, pushing what will no doubt be another rerun of this crisis to February 7th but having the ability to fund Goverment needs to January 15th.