Quote:
US President Barack Obama has signed into effect a wave of steep spending cuts which he has warned could damage the US economy.
The cuts - known as the sequester and drawn up two years ago - will take $85bn (£56bn) from the US federal budget this year.
Last-ditch talks at the White House to avert the reductions before Friday's deadline broke up without agreement.
The IMF has warned the cuts could slow global economic growth.
The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says the cuts were designed to be so brutally painful that politicians would be forced to agree on a better way of balancing the books.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21638727
If that's true it appears to have backfired, for now at least...
