Financial Times
Never particularly grounded in reality, budget talk in Washington has taken on an Alice in Wonderland quality. A paroxysm of deficit cutting is sweeping the US, with Republicans and Democrats hurling around dubious figures like confetti. But both are trying to win the battle to be the party of fiscal responsibility without broaching the one step every sensible analyst knows is necessary to solve America’s budget crisis: meaningful tax increases.
Financial Times
To a visitor from across the pond, the commotion in Europe over how to address its fiscal problems (or are they economic problems?) feels reminiscent of the disarray in America as its financial crisis unfolded a few years ago.
Financial Times
It is a dispiriting time for fiscal sanity in the US. Evidence is growing that both political parties lack the courage to mount an attack on their nation’s budget challenge. Republicans and Democrats agree that recent elections signalled public demand for deficit cuts. But they also agree that voters will steadfastly oppose the necessary pain.
“[a] surprisingly modest account…Rattner has a journalistic talent for the telling detail, resulting in a memorable tale of life in the middle of the economic meltdown...Rattner deftly draws portraits of the inhabitants of "the Oval" and the West Wing...Rattner has proved himself a gifted chronicler.”
-Time Magazine
