“The US Is Staring Down A Technical Default” – Here Are The Five Debt Ceiling Scenarios
In a note released on Monday commenting on the looming US debt ceiling showdown and the growing threat of a government shutdown and technical default by the US, Compass Point analyst Isaac Boltansky said he is becoming increasingly concerned that fall deadlines for federal government funding and the debt ceiling will prove tougher than the market currently expects, resulting in “markets roiled heading into 4Q and Fed’s policy normalization trajectory facing complications.” He adds that the increasingly fragmented legislative landscape may be set to “transition from inaction to dysfunction”, citing such factors as:
- Lawmakers return in Sept. with no clear strategy
- GOP leaders will likely be forced to rely on sizable contingents of Democrats
- Current spending caps for FY2018 are “despised” by both Democrats, Republicans, but for wholly different reasons
- White House’s position remains unclear as Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin has repeatedly called for a clean debt ceiling increase, but over the weekend President Donald Trump and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney suggested putting legislative activity on hold until health care is addressed
As a result, Boltansky sees odds of govt shutdown as materially higher than the likelihood of reaching debt ceiling as core components of spending fight (including border wall funding) are “meaningfully more politically complicated” than raising debt ceiling; his base case is for the federal government to face a brief shutdown in early October.
While that may be a little extreme, the reality is that with Congress critically fragmented, and with increasingly more politicians chosing to ignore anything that comes out of the mouth of the president, a happy ending is by no means assured and, as Boltansky suggests, “market event” may be necessary to spur Congress into action, similar to the passage of the TARP bill.
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