Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Too-Quiet Markets

The US is counting the days away
From default, which we surely hope stays away,
But the markets' reaction
Shows great satisfaction
Catastrophe's still quite a ways away.


Confounding the expectations of financial journalists, the international financial markets remained calm with less than a week to go before August 2, understood by all as the date on which the US Treasury could no longer pay its bills without an increase in the federal debt ceiling. Like Sherlock Holmes investigating the case of the dog that didn't bark, the Wall Street Journal contacted fixed income portfolio managers to explain this odd silence. The general answer seems to be an expectation that the immediate problem of the debt ceiling can and will be solved quickly, even if the larger problem of deficits may be thornier.

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Is there a limerick writer in you waiting to get out? Dr. Goose will appear on Marketplace Money with Tess Vigeland this weekend, and they would like your debt ceiling limericks to add to the fun! You can post them on the Marketplace Money Facebook page, or tweet them to @radiotess.

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