Here’s another quick roundup of reaction from around the world. via ThinkProgress
“Paralysis” A Le Monde article on Friday wondered if American democracy even works, calling out the Tea Party for blackmail and urging the government to hold firm. “In a democracy, people abolish laws by winning the election, not with the threat of a government shutdown or even a default. It is impossible to govern seriously undergoing this type of blackmail,” writes Martin Wolf.
“Economic Armageddon” In a Telegraph column entitled, “The American right have got it all wrong,” British commentator Jeremy Warner puzzled over what ails the Republican Party. Warner called the U.S.’s exorbitant healthcare costs bizarre, observing, “Whatever the answer, the reality is that the American Right has already largely lost the argument [over health care reform]. Yet it cannot bring itself to run up the white flag. Worse, it stands accused of irresponsible petulance by threatening to press the button marked “economic Armageddon” if it doesn’t get concessions.”
I can only imagine what the rest of the world, and perhaps more importantly international markets, will think when we’re only a few days away from hitting the debt ceiling. It’s possible that on October 16th the government will still be shut down and we will not have raised the debt ceiling yet.
Markets here at home aren’t the only ones who may panic.