Your customized headlines for Wed, Jul 4, 2012

The credibility of the system that underpins lending around the globe came under renewed assault Tuesday — and the consequences could find their way into Americans' pocketbooks.

Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a standard interest rate for loans between banks. It serves as a benchmark for more than $10 trillion in lending to businesses and consumers worldwide. In the United States, it is linked to the interest rates on student loans, credit cards and even some mortgages.

The United States could be pushed back into recession if automatic tax hikes and spending cuts take effect next year as scheduled, a potentially devastating blow to the world economy, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.

A growing number of Republican state leaders are revolting against the major Medicaid expansion called for under President Obama's health-care overhaul, threatening to undermine one of the law's most fundamental goals: insuring millions of poor Americans.

A while back, Ezra — with the help of political scientists at Yale, UCLA, and George Washington University — developed Wonkblog's very own presidential election model. It uses only three variables: economic growth during the first three quarters of the election year; the president's average approval rating as measured by Gallup in June of the election year; and whether or not a candidate is a member of the incumbent party.

A somewhat esoteric debate has broken out between the Council on Foreign Relations' Geoeconomics team and Paul Krugman over Iceland's performance since the economic crisis. Krugman says it's done better than the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, while the CFR team thinks it's done worse.

The United States could be pushed back into recession if automatic tax hikes and spending cuts take effect next year as scheduled, a potentially devastating blow to the world economy, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.