The administration led by the Performance Artist Formerly Known as “No-Drama Obama” is frankly disappointed (insert-appropriately loud Algore/Daschle-esque sigh here) in Wall Street for staying calm:
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.
Perhaps because, according to this report, the Obama administration has already assured them that would be no doomsday crisis in August.
Related: An Insta-reader notes that America exceeded the debt limit in 2009. The Professor notes in response, “It wasn’t a such big deal back then, but I guess that’s because both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats.
Elsewhere, as Hot Air paraphrases Byron York’s new article at the Washington Examiner, “Hey, remember when Obama, Reid, and Durbin opposed raising the debt ceiling?”
Finally, Stacy McCain spots “The Man With No Plan [Accusing] House Republicans of Irresponsibility.”
Frances Piven could not be reached for comment.
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