Compromise is the backbone of any negotiation, and with economic recovery at stake, it will be important for there to be political recovery to facilitate economic recovery. There are two specific areas that Democrats and Republicans need to work on together to ensure that the US recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression. The first is debt, and the second is taxes.

Good news has been sparse in the last couple of years. There has been some stories of recovery, a return to profits for some big corporations, but not much for small business. That good news comes from multinationals and investment banks, while we hope for the trickle-down to our part of the world. But a couple of news stories on Reuters yesterday gave me my first real feeling of turning a corner.