Time to Pay Up

China, the U.S.' biggest creditor, has told the American government to not even think about defaulting on its payments of interest on its debt, a real possibility, given the current impasse on the deficit in Washington. In the economic game, confidence is everything, and if a player cannot meet its obligations or even appears to be unable to, that essential trust is gone. So, right now, the world looks at the U.S. with some skepticism as to its capability to make good on its promises. Domestically, the American people too seem to have lost confidence in Obama's economic program as the solution to a recession that just won't go away.

Time is running out at home and abroad, and patience everywhere wears thin.

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