US default watch: Debt deal imminent?

Financial catastrophe averted?

Here's the latest scuttlebutt from Washington:

According to the New York Times, President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are closing in on a deal that would result in big spending cuts and seek future revenues through a tax overhaul.

Here's how the Times put it:

With the government staring at a potential default in less than two weeks, the officials said the administration on Wednesday night notified top members of Congress that an agreement between the president and Mr. Boehner could be imminent. The Congressional leaders, whose help Mr. Obama would need to bring a compromise forward, were told that the new revenue tied to the looming agreement to increase the debt limit by Aug. 2 would be produced in 2012 through a tax code rewrite that would lower individual and corporate rates, close loopholes, end tax breaks and make other adjustments to produce revenue gains.

No promises yet, though.

(More from GlobalPost: Solving the US debt problem)

Congressional leaders quoted by the Times say the negotiations remain tense, and there is no firm deal yet. 

The two sides are striving to come up with a deal before Aug. 2, the deadline for a potentially devastating U.S. default on its $14.3 trillion in government debt.

Stay tuned.