by MONITOR
THE US Treasury reported that America's budget deficit for the year ending 30 September 2008 had been $455 billion and that it was likely to rise in the current year. The two men battling to inherit this debt as the next president offered different solutions: Barack Obama said he would immediately stimulate the economy with additional tax breaks while John McCain proposed tax relief for the elderly and unemployed. In the final TV debate a spirited performance by McCain failed to upset Obama who remained in the lead in all polls with less than three weeks to polling day on November 4.
Governments around the world took unprecedented steps to strengthen their banks, many of them including the United States by adopting the British scheme for part nationalisation through the conditional injection of public money.
In Canada the Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper failed in his general election bid to win an overall parliamentary majority but picked up an extra 19 seats at the expense of the Liberals.