via Bloomberg
Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics Inc. estimates a three-to-four week shutdown would cut growth by 1.4 points. Zandi projects a 2.5 percent annualized pace of fourth-quarter growth without a shutdown. A two-week shutdown starting Oct. 1 could cut growth by 0.3 percentage point to a 2.3 percent rate, according to St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers LLC. [...]
“What we have is a political and not economic maelstrom,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at Economic Outlook Group LLC in Princeton, New Jersey. “What everyone is watching right now is if the uncertainty is affecting consumer and business psychology, that they are postponing spending until they get more clarity about what’s going to happen in Washington.”
Uncertainty? I’m old enough to remember when uncertainty was the only thing Republicans and their counterparts on Spazzy White Guy Television (CNBC) talked about. Now they are the biggest causes of it.
Why? Because starting tomorrow Americans will be able to purchase cheaper private health insurance plans on the free market.
That’s all I’ve got. That’s the joke.