Matthew Rothchild, Cambridge, Minn.

Now that a deal has been reached to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default on the United States’ sovereign debt and end the partial government shutdown, many voices are hailing this development as a triumph for reasonableness and sensibility. And there may even be some truth to that.

However, serious voices busy themselves asking serious questions about what has transpired. Has this development indeed ushered in a new era of progress and placed us on track for a sustainable fiscal future where our collective financial woes will be obliterated? Or has this development done nothing to forestall the coming financial ruin that, despite today’s fleeting cheery and celebratory optimism, virtually everyone still thinks is coming?

A deal may have been reached, but it may only have delayed the inevitable. The only thing that seems clear is that real solutions will be those without the overheated rhetoric and melodramatic posturing.