Red Ink Week

The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the United States was getting carried away with a government austerity drive, offering some of the institution's bluntest criticism yet of Washington's rush to cut its budget deficit.Despite high unemployment, Washington is on track to slash its budget shortfall this year by the most in nearly a half century."We think this is too much," Carlo Cottarelli, head of the IMF's fiscal affairs division, told a conference.The IMF has advised European governments embroiled in a debt crisis to shrink their deficits aggressively to win back the confidence of lenders who doubt their ability to pay back loans.But there is very little risk of similar turmoil will ensnare the United States anytime soon, Cottarelli said. Interest rates remain low in the United States, even when factoring in inflation, a sign that lenders still trust the U.S. government to make good on its debts."There is no need for the U.S. to move so quickly," he said.Cottarelli said a ...

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