Looks like the government shutdown is full speed ahead. It’s 1995 all over again. Congress vs. The President. Sequels are never as good as the original.
Except for maybe “Aliens.”
Stock market is reacting to this by yawning. Or down slightly as I type. Usually, Wall Street prefers gridlock and the government just getting the heck out of the way. What does this better than a shutdown?
What are the effects of a shutdown on the economy?
For one thing, the shutdown would begin on a weekend when most federal offices are already closed. Also, the elderly would still receive Social Security checks, the IRS would continue to collect taxes and the Treasury would still be able to manage the government’s debt. “If the government does shutdown, we expect the economic and market impacts to be negligible, “ chief economist Ethan Harris of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said in a report Friday.
Negligible.
What’s not negligible to the consumer? Oil prices. Crude rallies above $112. Crude-oil futures advanced nearly 2% Friday, trading at a 30-month high and above $112 a barrel as the dollar sank and investors worried about deadly Middle East protests and an oil-field blaze in Libya.
So. Government shutdowns. Oil prices climbing. Sinking US dollar. Blazing oil field in Libya. Plus the Red Sox are 0-6, and losing to the Yankees 2-1 as I type.
It’s all falling apart at the seams, it seems.
Thank goodness it’s Friday.