America faces “constitutional breakdown” or “financial armageddon,” one of the country’s leading economists has warned, as talks to end the political stand-off in Washington fell apart.
Professor Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, compared President Barack Obama’s position to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Kennedy administration refused to negotiate with Cuba and the Soviet Union despite the threat of potential nuclear destruction.
“It's very hard to see a silver lining to this. It's a constitutional breakdown [but] threatening financial armageddon is blackmail," Mr Rogoff, who is now a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard, told the Telegraph.
“President Obama should push them [the Republicans] to the brink. This has implications beyond the moment. There is a danger of weakening the presidency on a long-term basis.” » | Katherine Rushton, US Business Editor | Tuesday, October 15, 2013
