Selon M. Villepin*, il y a trois raisons à l'instabilité mondiale. *Ex Premier Ministre

Dominique de Villepin s'est lancé dans une nouvelle bataille. Jeudi 10 octobre, devant un parterre de banquiers et de journalistes réunis au Foreign Correspondent Club de Hong Kong, l'ancien premier ministre français a appelé àcréer un monde juste, "équilibré", "où il y a de la place pour la prospérité de tous". Avant d'arriver à cette conclusion, M. Villepin a réclamé l'abolition des privilèges dont jouissent les pays occidentaux, manière à peine voilée de viser les Etats-Unis et leur planche à billets verts, imprimés pour éponger une dette sans cesse croissante.
Selon M. Villepin, il y a trois raisons à l'instabilité mondiale. Trois privilèges. En premier lieu, le contrôle de la monnaie, et le dollar, qui régit l'essentiel des échanges mondiaux. "L'Amérique est devenue le grand débiteur du monde, sauf qu'à la différence des ménages, elle n'a pas à rembourser." Ensuite, le contrôle des règles du jeu. Et comme le rappelle Dominique de Villepin, "c'est plus facile degagner quand vous décidez des règles et que vous les changez au gré des besoins". Le troisième privilège est le contrôle des risques. "Décider de ce qui est risqué ou ne l'est pas, c'est décider de là où va l'argent ou non." Et Dominique de Villepin de rappeler que le marché des agences de notation est à 96 % contrôlé par les Etats-Unis avec le quasi-triopole Moody's, Standard and Poor's et Fitch. . Trois privilèges. En premier lieu, le contrôle de la monnaie, et le dollar, qui régit l'essentiel des échanges mondiaux. "L'Amérique est devenue le grand débiteur du monde, sauf qu'à la différence des ménages, elle n'a pas à rembourser." Ensuite, le contrôle des règles du jeu. Et comme le rappelle Dominique de Villepin, "c'est plus facile degagner quand vous décidez des règles et que vous les changez au gré des besoins". Le troisième privilège est le contrôle des risques. "Décider de ce qui est risqué ou ne l'est pas, c'est décider de là où va l'argent ou non." Et Dominique de Villepin de rappeler que le marché des agences de notation est à 96 % contrôlé par les Etats-Unis avec le quasi-triopole Moody's, Standard and Poor's et Fitch. 

House Republicans Proposal Calls for Broader Budget Talks

  According to the Wall Street Journal:

"House Republicans have made an offer to the White House to extend the nation's borrowing authority for six weeks and end the partial government shutdown, in exchange for broader budget talks in which they would seek cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits, GOP officials said.

The proposal was advanced by House Republican leaders Thursday night after they met with President Barack Obama at the White House. It outlines what deficit-reduction measures and other changes Republicans would pursue if the White House agreed to negotiate.

The GOP requests in those talks would include: means-testing Medicare, slowing the growth of benefits for Social Security, changing the retirement plans for federal workers and adopting a framework for altering the tax code, according to an outline of the offer.

The proposal held open the possibility of reopening the government, now partially closed for an 11th day, but the length of time agencies would be funded and other terms of a funding package remained unclear.                                   The White House hasn't yet responded to the proposal, GOP aides said. Mr. Obama on Friday morning met with Senate Republicans, some of whom are working with Senate Democrats on a different proposal for raising the debt ceiling and funding federal agencies so that the government can fully reopen.

 The Democrats argue that they shouldn't have to make concessions in order to reopen the government or lift the debt ceiling. Republicans believe they are playing an increasingly weak hand,as public-opinion polls show they are bearing the larger share of blame for the government shutdown".

Au Salon du livre de Francfort on pouvait rencontrer les livres électroniques ''Sobooks''

"Le streaming est-il un modèle pérenne pour le livre numérique ? Il est bien trop tôt pour le dire, mais plusieurs start-up, que l'on pouvait rencontrer sur le Salon du livre de Francfort (Allemagne), qui se tient actuellement, se sont mises sur le rang.

Présent mardi 8 octobre à la conférence Contec, qui allie le contenu et la technologie, le blogeur allemand Sascha Lobo a fait sensation avec son crâne rasé et sa crête rouge. Il est le fondateur de la nouvelle plate-forme de livres électroniques baptisée "Sobooks".

C'est en voyant l'un de ses amis qui élaborait une application de lecture sur le Net et qui n'arrivait pas à partager ses écrits que Sascha Lobo a eu l'idée. Or, selon M. Lobo, "les livres restent la meilleure manière de payer les gens pour qu'ils partagent leurs pensées". C'est cette idée qu'il entend développer sur la Toile.

Présents aussi à Francfort, trois Brésiliens, pas encore trentenaires, ont crée Widbook, un site d'écriture collaborative. Présent dans cent pays depuis son lancement, en juin 2012, ce site compte à ce jour soixante-cinq mille utilisateurs et a publié dix-huit cents livres. Widbook connecte ensemble des internautes qui peuvent écrire, lire et partager leurs travaux. Pour l'instant, le site est gratuit. Chaque personne inscrite peut faire partager ses écrits, demander des conseils, ou en donner.

24 Symbols, créé par l'Espagnol Rusto Hidalgo, s'est fait connaître comme l'un des premiers services d'abonnement à des catalogues de livres numériques. Contre un forfait, gratuit, avec publicités, ou payant, sans publicité, et hors ligne, l'utilisateur peut accéder de façon illimitée à une offre d'ebooks .A ce jour, la plate-forme compte cent soixante-quinze mille utilisateurs.

Aux Etats-Unis, la société Oyster, qui n'était pas présente à Francfort, a lancé en septembre un service d'abonnement à une librairie en ligne. Pour 9,95 dollars (7,36 euros), ses utilisateurs auront accès à cent mille livres numérisés.

Interrogé, mercredi, sur ces nouveaux modèles économiques, Markus Dohle, président de Penguin Random House a exprimé son scepticisme sur "la rentabilité de ces modèles", avant de conclure que pour lui, "l'édition papier avait encore cent ans devant elle". 

Le Monde

Il existe en France, des opportunités immenses, à condition d'avoir du courage et une volonté de changer de perspective.

 "L'âne peut aller à La Mecque, il n'en reviendra pas pèlerin." Autrement dit, pourquoi aller chercher ailleurs ce que vous avez entre les mains ? Il existe en France des gisements de croissance et des opportunités immenses, à condition d'avoir du courage et une volonté de changerde perspective".

"Notre société, Ityz, créée en 2012, propose une application pour smartphones qui permet à tous, gratuitement, decommander un taxi en deux clics. Un service similaire existait déjà à Londres, à Berlin et à New York. Pourquoi pas à Paris ? Défi relevé.

Chaque mois, des entreprises annoncent des plans de licenciements plus ou moins massifs ; chaque semaine, des articles de presse expliquent les effets désastreux d'une crise économique qui se mue en crise sociale.

Et pourtant nous avons décidé, dans ce tourbillon de déprimes qui tire vers le bas, de donner un coup de talon pour remonter à la surface : en créant notre entreprise! Folie? Inconscience? Audace? Trop jeunes pour comprendre? C'est cette jeunesse d'esprit qui nous pousse à croire en notre pays, la France.

La confiance ne se décrète pas, elle se vit. La croissance ne se décrète pas non plus, elle se conquiert. 

Partir, nous dit-on, parce que nous avons une élite vieillissante qui monopolise tous les pouvoirs ? Certes, ce constat est admis par tous, mais il signifie aussi que, dans quelques années, nous assisterons de facto à un renouvellement générationnel puissant. Une économie en déclin ? Un ralentissement économique est justement le moment idéal pour démarrer une entreprise.

Cela semble paradoxal, mais pensez-y ! Les coûts sont moins élevés et davantage de talents sont disponibles. Les clients potentiels sont plus susceptibles d'essayer un nouveau service qui pourra les aider à réduire leurs dépenses ou à augmenter leur compétitivité. Il reste encore beaucoup à produireen termes d'idées, de travail et d'investissements''...

La réussite serait-elle une exclusivité internationale, interdite en France ? Nous avons nous aussi de beaux fleurons du Web tels que Viadeo, Criteo, etc. Notre entreprise recrute des talents américains venant des start-up les plus en pointe de la Silicon Valley. Ils sont séduits par la qualité de vie française. Et par un certain esprit. Ici, on ne vous demande pas combien vous "pesez" avant d'engager la conversation.

A ceux qui ne voient qu'une France qui geint, grogne et récrimine, nous répondons qu'elle est un pays de talents où il fait bon vivre. A l'origine de la création de l'iPhone ? Un Français. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, Amazon... dans les équipes de direction de ces géants du Net, on trouve des Français. Et la plupart d'entre eux ont été formés en France.

Alors nous disons : "Investissez-vous" pour que les choses changent ! "Restez",car il y a un potentiel de croissance incroyable dans notre pays. "Prenez des risques", car gérer des risques, c'est le fondement de l'entreprise. Et pour reprendre les paroles de Nelson Mandela : "Le courage n'est pas l'absence de peur, mais la capacité de la vaincre."

David Brun et Grégoire Prévost (cofondateurs d'Ityz)

Start-ups Roy Saar* writes about Saas model. *Mangrove Capital Partners

"In today’s business world, technology, specifically software, is ubiquitous in the business environment. It can help track shipments across continents, manage large numbers of employees and control inventories.

For years, companies have relied on software to run their own computer networks and internal structures. But in recent years, the traditional software license purchase has become old fashioned. Many customers and vendors are migrating to a Saas(Software as a Service business model).

SaaS is a web based software application delivery system. The SaaS model is simple; the enterprise vendor operates and hosts clients over the internet, and the client enjoys access to all business activities online. Customers pay the vendor monthly fees (annuity payments) (and are usually not required to buy extra equipment or software licenses for using the application).

Unlike traditional consumer oriented web host software, SaaS literally encapsulates the enterprises. This is why the demand for software licenses has remained flat, while SaaS has experienced a big boom. This demand is due, in large part, to its low costs. Business enterprises save on the costs incurred by IT related investments. SaaS fosters innovative ways to be efficient with tasks. It also offers a considerable decrease in deployment time.

SaaS is of two types; business application and development tools. Business application SaaS entails the software that helps businesses accomplish their tasks accurately and quickly. Examples include client management, such as CRM systems (customer relationship management) and marketing automation. Business Applications are very competitive and very specific. You can find a SaaS provider to satisfy your most complex or unique demands.

SaaS owners should always seek to understand, test and apply key performance indicators.

• Monthly Recurring Revenue serves as a primary benchmark for progress. It is the steady cash flow from client sources, such as monthly subscriptions (measured by subscription monthly revenues owed by a customer over the duration of the months).
• Cost per acquisition is used to determine the amount of money spent in acquiring the customers and the viability of the process. It is measured by adding the marketing and sales expenses over the average cost per new customer to the business.
• Average revenue per customer is more straightforward. It is used to determine the revenue already received from customers.
• Lifetime value of a customer, in essence, is his or her economic value to your company. This figure is determined in different ways, depending on your business model.
• How many customers does your business lose per month? How many come back for your services? This is defined by churn. Churn measures the percentage of customers that your business loses over a specific duration of time". 

     By  Roy Saar

     Roy Saar is an Angel investor & Venture Capitalist with Mangrove Capital Partners

     Roy seats on the boards of: WIX, PlanetSoho, WalkMe, RFcell & Polaris Solutions.

Christine Legarde: Long-Term Issues Rate and Reach of Change of Global Economy

 "Managing Director Christine Lagarde outlined long-term trends facing the global economy and implications for the Fund in a keynote speech at the plenary session of the IMF-World Bank 2013 Meetings.

Even while grappling with a range of difficult transitions in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Lagarde pointed to the longer-term trends and “frontier risks” facing the IMF’s 188 countries.  

“Over the next generation, the rate and reach of change is likely to be even greater than before. With that, the needs of our members will change. So too must the Fund.”

 In the next decade the share of emerging and developing economies in global GDP will increase from about half to nearly two-thirds, Lagarde stated, setting the stage for a world where economic power will be far more dispersed across all regions.

The IMF must mirror this shift and be more representative, Lagarde said. The institution is already moving in this direction, Lagarde added, referring the 2010 governance reforms, which once implemented, would provide a platform on which to build further.

As emerging and developing countries grow and converge, their financial interconnections will become deeper and more complex.

Deeper integration will fuel growth, but it will not be without risk, Lagarde warned. “Experience teaches us a vital lesson: greater financial integration raises the probability and size of financial crises.”

Lagarde underlined other long-term trends—demographic shifts, income inequality, and environmental sustainability—that will affect growth and stability. Where these issues affect the macroeconomic health of the IMF’s member countries, they must be “part our work,” she said.

In all these new areas of risk, Lagarde said that it would be important for the IMF to cooperate more effectively with other institutions and help to focus global attention on specific issues". 

Christine Legarde

IMF-World Bank 2013 Annual Meetings

Meet Mark Tluszcz Forbes Midas List 2007-2009

I am the co-founder and CEO of Mangrove.

I grew up in Africa and Egypt, went to university in the US and have lived in Europe for 20 years, integrating values of ambition, humility and open-mindedness along the way.

I launched our firm in 2000 with Gerard and Hans-Jürgen on the belief that talent is everywhere and that bold entrepreneurs should make more money than we do. This philosophy is imbedded in our firm’s DNA. I think entrepreneurs are the real stars and I spend my time traveling extensively across the globe looking for the next big thing.

I am interested in weird ideas. In fact, the weirder, the better. I engage with entrepreneurs who want to disrupt the norm and change the world. I am critical, direct and impatient, yet always supportive. I currently serve on the boards of FreedomPop, Nimbuzz, and Wix and had the privilege of being involved with Skype until the company was sold to eBay.

I was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as one of the top 100 global deal makers in technology and selected in 2010 as one of the 30 most influential persons in Luxembourg.

I spent the first 10 years of my professional life at Arthur Andersen, ultimately becoming a Partner in their business consulting practice before running their European venture capital fund. Meanwhile, I invested personally into several small businesses, tasting success when my brother took his company, the Frederick Brewing Company, public in 1997.

  Outside of Mangrove Capital, I sit on the boards of Galenicum, a leading European generic drug company and the Mangrove Foundation, a philanthropic organization.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida and speak English, French and Spanish fluently. 

Stream Music Online Income leftovers for Artists

"The boom in digital streaming may generate profits for record labels and free content for consumers, but it spells disaster for today's artists across the creative industries.
There are a number of ways to stream music online: Pandora is like a radio station that plays stuff you like but doesn't take requests; YouTube plays individual songs that folks and corporations have uploaded and Spotify is a music library that plays whatever you want (if they have it), whenever you want it. Some of these services only work when you're online, but some, like Spotify, allow you to download your playlist songs and carry them around. For many music listeners, the choice is obvious – why would you ever buy a CD or pay for a download when you can stream your favourite albums and artists either for free, or for a nominal monthly charge?
The amounts these services pay per stream is miniscule – their idea being that if enough people use the service those tiny grains of sand will pile up. Domination and ubiquity are therefore to be encouraged. We should readjust our values because in the web-based world we are told that monopoly is good for us. The major record labels usually siphon off most of this income, and then they dribble about 15-20% of what's left down to their artists. Indie labels are often a lot fairer – sometimes sharing the income 50/50. Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi) has published abysmal data on payouts  from Pandora and Spotify for his song "Tugboat" and Lowery even wrote a piece entitled
pandora one million times and All I Got Was $16.89. For a band of four people that makes a 15% royalty from Spotify streams, it would take 236'549,020 streams for each person to earn a minimum wage of $15,080 a year.
In future, if artists have to rely almost exclusively on the income from these services, they'll be out of work within a year".

Source: theguardian

Europe:Property Search Zoopla wins Investor Award

Property search site Zoopla has been voted Europe's 'most exciting investor-backed company' in advance of its widely expected initial public offering.

Zoopla hired investment bank Credit Suisse in early September to explore how the company can grow its business, which could include a listing on London Stock Exchange

The six-year old site could be valued at as much as £1.3bn, reflecting growing house prices and a maturity in the tech startup space.

"We set out to make consumers lives better by giving them a better experience and a greater selection," he said. 

"The consumer experience was poor – all those other players focused on UK property search classified ads in much the same way as newspapers had always done. But we focus on the peripheral information - what the house last sold for, what the schools are like and what newspaper the neighbours read. All this stuff is out there, in 18 places, so we just made it a one stop shop."

The property slump meant that Zoopla was able to buy 11 competitors in four years at relatively low value, closing those which duplicated its service and keeping open niche sites for new homes, overseas property and high end. It is due to open a new commercial property portal in December.

Zoopla has 40m monthly users, claims to generate 2.5m monthly leads for estate agents and, in August, recorded 46% of its monthly views on mobile. It is expected to generate £65m in revenues for 2013 and revenue growth of 20% per year, generated by subscription fees from estate agents and developers, display advertising and access to consumer data.

• In 2011, Zoopla added price heat maps  to its tool.

Source: theguardian

IMF: Huge Challenge to Phase out Quantative Easing in the U.S.

The International Monetary Fund has underlined the scale of the challenge facing Janet Yellen if she is confirmed asFederalReservechairman by issuing a stark warning on Wednesday that phasing out quantative easing could spark "fire sales" of assets, wiping $2.3tn off bond markets.
Under its "adverse scenario", the fund warned, global interes trates would jump abruptly, causing turmoil across world financial markets.
The IMF regards the phasing out of QE as a positive development, but the report warns that "managing a smooth transition could prove challenging, as investors adjust portfolios for a new regime with higher interest rates and greater volatility".
In the report, IMF analysts lay out a relatively benign scenario in which market rates adjust gradually as the Fed withdraws its stimulus. But they warn that there is also an adverse scenario, which would involve investors taking a $2.3tn (£1.4tn) hit amid "a rapid tightening in financial conditions, potentially aggravated by reduced market liquidity and forced asset sales". The IMF described the markets' so-called "taper tantrum" earlier this year, after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke mooted the idea of tapering QE, as a "mini stress test" that helped to reveal how investors might respond as monetary policy returns to normal.
Its adverse scenario involves the same increase in long-term interest rates – one percentage point – as the benign scenario, but over a much shorter time period. Because investors have flooded into bond markets and longer-term assets since QE got under way, the losses to investors would be far larger than during other recent episodes when policymakers have been pushing up interest rates.
Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England's executive director for markets, recently warnedthat Central Banks had inflated "the biggest bond bubble in history", which could jeopardise l stability if it burst.
Viñals pointed out that capital flows to emerging markets have increased by $1tn since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers. 
As the flow of cheap money is turned off, which could prompt many investors to pull their capital back home, he suggested policymakers may have to intervene in foreign exchange markets "in order to maintain orderly conditions".

Source: theguardian

Bond bubble threatens financial system, Bank of England director warns

"Andy Haldane fears the bursting of 'the biggest bond bubble in history' after electronic money printing exercises by the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve in the US"

"In a wide-ranging testimony to MPs, Andy Haldane, Bank of England director of financial stability, admitted the central bank's new financial policy committee is taking too long to force banks to hold more capital and appeared to criticise the bank's culture under outgoing governor Sir Mervyn King.Haldane told the Treasury select committee that the bursting of the bond bubble – created by central banks forcing down bond yields by pumping electronic money into the economy – was a risk "I feel acutely right now".

He described bond markets as the main risk to financial stability. "If I were to single out what for me would be biggest risk to global financial stability right now it would be a disorderly reversion in the yields of government bonds globally." he said. There had been "shades of that" in recent weeks as government bond yields have edged higher amid talk that central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, will start to reduce its stimulus".

"Let's be clear. We've intentionally blown the biggest government bond bubble in history," Haldane said. "We need to be vigilant to the consequences of that bubble deflating more quickly than [we] might otherwise have wanted."

The Bank of England later issued a statement, describing Haldane's remarks as his "personal view" and stressed that if it raised interest rates– stuck at record lows since March 2009 – too quickly the consequences might be severe. "Any attempt to return interest rates quickly to more normal levels would recreate recession conditions," the Bank of England. Haldane said the FPC was on alert to any bubbles created by the help to buy mortgage guarantee scheme for first-time buyers and house movers, stressing the scheme should be temporary.

Source: theguardian

US Treasury Secretary warns of unforseen consequences of political gridlock

The Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, warned on Thursday that the continued brinksmanship over the debt limit risks unforeseen consequences in the financial markets that could in turn lead to the US running out of cash within days.

As pressure mounted on congress to cut a deal  before next Thursday's deadline for extending the federal debt limit, Lew accused Republicans of underestimating the danger of inadvertently triggering a stampede among investors that could rapidly drain remaining reserves.

More than $100bn of the US debt, known as Treasury bonds, is typically reissued every week as investors roll over their loans to the government. Typically this process is routine and does not add to the $17tn US debt pile, but simply refinances a portion of it.

But markets have already been spooked by Republican threats to refuse to extend the debt limit if they do not extract concessions on healthcare reform. Short-term borrowing costs nearly tripled in a bond auction on Tuesday as investors feared there was a risk that interest and capital repayments could be missed.

A similar wariness to roll over bonds expiring next week could exhaust a $50bn cash reserve at any point, warned Lew. "Trying to time a debt limit increase to the last minute could be very dangerous,"

Source: theguardian

Behind the lately weakness in gold prices

"WHOLESALE PRICES in Asia and London for physical gold slipped again Thursday morning, dipping back below $1300 per ounce as politicians in Washington mulled a short-term fix to avoid the $17 trillion debt ceiling triggering a government default in one week's time.

Silver also eased back, trading below $22 per ounce, as world stock markets rose and major government bonds slipped, nudging 10-year US Treasury yields up to 2.70%. 

Legal inflows of gold to India – the world's former #1 consumer nation – have been so dented by the government's anti-import rules that the country's trade deficit shrank to a 30-month low in September, officials said yesterday.

"This is working out as the government intended," the Financial Express quotes commerce secretary S.R.Rao after India's monthly trade deficitcame in below $6.8 billion for the first time since April 2011. 

Many Indian households have turned to silver says the Economic Times, with silver imports already doubling 2012's full-year total over the Jan-Aug. period at 4,073 tonnes according to Thomson Reuters GFMS.

"The record high was 5048 tonnes in2008 ," says the paper.

Households in central China's Hubei province have meantime grown their gold and silver jewelry demand 41% by value  so far this year, the Xinhua agency reports.

The region's private demand totalled the equivalent of $1.3 billion despite the sharply lower prices compared with the first 8 months of 2012.

Here in London today, the Bank of England followed the US Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan in voting for no change to current policy, holding interest rates at record lows and maintaining its £375 billion ($600bn) quantitative easing gilt-buying scheme.

"[US Fed] tapering has been postponed not canceled, and is expected by year end," wrote Morgan Stanley analysts earlier this week, adding that Washington's "political stalemate" over the debt ceiling will soon be resolved.

"Consequently, we see little immediate upside to the gold price either in the immediate future or next year."

"We recommend staying away from gold," said Morgan Stanley analyst Joel Crane overnight, repeating the investment bank's 2014 average forecast of $1313 per ounce".

Adrian Ash

Bullion vault

India in talks with JP Morgan, others to join bond indexes

India is talking with JP Morgan and others to gain entry to benchmark indexes for emerging market debt in hopes of attracting billions of dollars in investment and may ease some restrictions on foreign inflows in order to do so, sources said.
To qualify for entry into the widely-followed JP Morgan Government Bond Index - Emerging Markets, India needs to ease rules on registration, documentation, due diligence rules for the entry of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the Indian debt market, besides allowing them to invest more in the government debt, two sources said.

With a wide current account gap and a weakened rupee, India wants to attract some of the billions of dollars managed passively by tracking global indexes. However, Indian restrictions limit foreign investment in onshore debt, which exclude it from indexes managed by JP Morgan and others.

India has been taking steps to ease investment rules but is also skittish about fully removing limits given worries about the volatility of global flows. Its credit rating also stands just one notch above junk status, although a downgrade would not disqualify it from an emerging market index.

Inclusion in popular government bond indexes could attract $20 billion-$40 billion in additional flows into India over a year, Standard Chartered Bank wrote in a report last month.

President B. Obama and Republican leaders appeared ready to end a political crisis

President Barack Obama and Republican leaders appeared ready to end a political crisis that has shuttered much of the U.S. government and pushed the country dangerously close to default after meeting at the White House on Thursday.

No deal emerged from the 90-minute meeting, but talks continued into the night in an effort to re-open the government and extend the government's borrowing authority beyond an October 17 deadline. One senior Republican said an agreement could come on Friday, though hurdles remain.

Republicans in the meeting offered to extend the government's borrowing authority for several weeks, temporarily putting off a default that otherwise could come as soon as next week. Obama pushed to also reopen government operations that have been closed since October 1.

Significantly, Republicans seemed to be steering clear of the restrictions on Obama's healthcare reforms and spending that prompted the crisis in the first place. Instead, negotiations centered on how far to extend the debt limit and how much funding they would provide the government when it opens, according to Republicans.

Source: Reuters