“However, many think that the government will do all it can to keep the ball in the air until after the elections”
That certainly wasn’t the case in 08.
I think the next shoe to drop will be the bond markets.
It wasn’t the case in 2008, but the GOP wishes it was. McCain was neck and neck with Obama until the crisis really wound up and Juan discontinued his campaign to consult in Washington about what was to be done.
The GOP got the blame for the crash, although a significant amount of the debt build-up was due to either Democratic or bipartisan meddling (liar loans, repealing Glass Stegall, bad underwriting fed into FNMA, etc). If the GOP could have postponed the problems for six months, they would have!