Posted on 07/30/2011 9:30:38 AM PDT by Eyes Unclouded
I just got off the phone with a source on Capitol Hill who has spent the past few days trying to convince Republicans to vote for a debt ceiling hike.
He told me that the biggest obstacle he faces has been "market complacency."
"Frankly, a bit of panic would be very helpful right now," he said.
As he explained it, lots of people in Washington, D.C. expected that this would be a week marked by panic in the markets. Stocks would tank. Bonds would get clobbered. The dollar would do something dramatic. And all of this would help convince reluctant lawmakers that they had to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.
"We were following the script from 2008. When the market collapsed after TARP failed, that spooked everyone enough to get them to fall in line. We thought the same thing would happen this week," he said.
Instead, the market has just been on a quiet, non-panicked slide.
Stocks have sold off by a couple of percentage points, but nothing that indicates a real fear trade in the works.
Everyone in D.C. has a theory about this. Some believe the market is sending a message that a deal will get done. Others think the market doesn't understand politics.
"Every day we wake up and think that stocks will send a shock up to Capitol Hill. And every day nothing happens," the source said.
He's still holding out hope for a panic sell-off at the end of the day.
"It's the only thing that's going to bring everyone together on this," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Sounds to me that Wall Street and/or big business knows a lot more than Washington.
I’ve been wondering about this also.
The Republicans hold out...and life goes on. It makes it hard to sell panic decisions.
Some of these people need to be taken out. Who the hell do they think they are?
Fool me once, shame on you...
Wall Street is waiting until November 2012.
If Obama gets re-elected, THEN you will see panic.
Why should they panic? They know the debt service will get paid and a gov shut down would have little down side for private business.
Carney writes interesting stuff, in the otherwise weak lineup at CNBC.
BINGO! It’s all about re-election for obama.
Apparently someone spooked Boehner last weekend. He was in a panic over the Asian markets.
The collective wisdom of the market is a lot smarter than Washington D.C. I am keeping my money in the stock market. I think a credit downgrade is already baked in the cake.
PING!
It just goes to show you that we don’t need to raise the debt ceiling at all, they need to make a budget like regular American’s to live within their means without trying to call the bank.
Now let me try to understand this. Wall Street sees the Tea Party Conservatives and GOP Pubbies trying to fix Americas economic house and the Marxists expect it to tank.
Uh oh, the Mad Hatter just rushed by desk announcing he was late—again.
I’m 67 years old and broke my tooth the other day. I put the piece under my pillow, but the Tooth Fairy left me no money. Were my expectations unrealistic?
Without the constant calls from their constituents, the GOP would have already stampeded to ANY plan in fright, probably right over a cliff. Fear is a great motivator, but it is a terrible decision maker.
I think I know why I find Boehner so repulsive. It’s way past time to be laughing at the inanities eminating from Marxist demrat mouths. Instead, we have prune face Boehner treating them like they are credible opponents.
The reason nothing is happening is DC is way out of the loop.
They think America must be heading towards a slow recovery, albeit held back a bit by regressive republicans who don’t want to spend money.
But the average American knows we are in a depression/recession, and heading no where good. And has known this for a while. So they are already in their “fall back” positions.
We’ve already pruned our stocks. We’ve already purchased our gold, our silver, our other commodities. We aren’t going to open businesses until a more business friendly administration gets in office. We aren’t going to hire any more employees until Obamacare is destroyed or at least castrated.
The DC types have been artifically insulated from what is going on out in the producing areas. They have no idea of the anger building for them.
Hey don’t say that! You are going to make him cry!
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