The deal's been done

President Obama and his Republican opponents have reached a deal to raise the US's debt ceiling. The President has just addressed the national, and announced details; the Herald reports:

US President Barack Obama says a deal has been done to riase the US debt ceiling, warding off a potential global financial diaster.

Politicians in the US continued to wrangle over a plan to cut American spending, raise the nation's borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented debt default, as party leaders continued to express optimism that an agreement would be reached.

On Twitter, Bernard Hickey from interest.co.nz suggests that the deal is not as good as the ratings agents were hoping for, even though it enables the USA to borrow another ONE TRILLION dollars. The US$ has dropped sharply in value in the wake of Obama's announcement, and the NZ$ has shot up to a new record high of $0.882.

Doubtless there will be more reaction in the next we while, and we'll try to cover it off. At least the USA economy isn't going to the wall just yet.