"We will set a ceiling on cost - I think that's an essential part of good design being able to design within a cost, " said Mr Ferguson.

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But the deal would not raise the debt ceiling and depending on how the cost of various provisions are scored, it might do little to reduce the deficit and could conceivably even increase it.

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Even if the ceiling is raised, it would likely be at the cost of deep spending cuts demanded by Republicans in Washington.

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No, argues David Moss, an economist at Harvard Business School, in a forthcoming book: the benefits of putting a ceiling on the potential losses faced by shareholders far outweighed the cost of a slightly higher risk of debt default.

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More likely, their longer-term growth will bump up against the ceiling of a European market in which the contestable low-cost segment is smaller than it is in the U.S., and well-established packaged-tour operators and national-flag carriers can block deeper inroads into the leisure- and business-travel segments.

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The measure represents the latest in a series of Republican concessions on spending and debt issues, with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his leadership team proposing the debt ceiling increase without any spending cuts they had previously demanded to offset the cost.

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When seen for what it represents, our repeated confrontations with the debt ceiling should serve to remind us that the perceived benefits of government spending cannot ultimately be separated from their cost.

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