Ferguson and Krugman sat side by side – ideological poles of the debate at centre stage. Their contrasting demeanours made for great theatre, as Ferguson the eternal Head Boy, legs insouciantly crossed and chin high, looked down on the gnomic, hunched figure to his right.
After a week in which his legislative agenda came under sustained attack from both sides, the President will be content to see his stimulus bill scrape through, diminished and shop-worn, by the narrowest possible margin.