That leaves one, rather distant, hope: that, in the lame-duck period between the election and the next Congress, prompted by the imminent expiry of George Bush's tax cuts at the beginning of 2013, America's politicians will sit down and finally hammer out the grand bargain the country so desperately needs, with the tax increases delayed in exchange for sensible reforms to spending and the tax code.

ECONOMIST: America��s fragile recovery

IT'S JUST DOWN THE BLOCK from the New York Stock Exchange, at 50 Broad Street, but not nearly so grand.

FORBES: Free enterprise comes to Wall Street

Optimists hope that their expiry in 2012 will allow a grand bargain to be agreed before then: the lower tax rates could be kept in exchange for a plan to stabilise the federal debt as a share of GDP by closing loopholes and cutting spending.

ECONOMIST: The American economy

The legal definition of immunity is a promise not to prosecute for a crime in exchange for information or testimony in a criminal matter granted by the prosecutors, a judge, a grand jury or an investigating legislative committee.

NPR: U.S. Offers Immunity for Blackwater Guards