dk: When was the last time the US defaulted on it's debt? Seriously.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-debt-default/
Quote:
The first time was in 1790, the only episode Professor Reinhart unearthed in which the United States defaulted on its external debt obligations. It also defaulted on its domestic debt obligations then, too.
Then in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the United States had another domestic debt default related to the repayment of gold-based obligations. Additionally, there were two episodes when a spate of American states defaulted on their debts, in 1841-42 (nine states) and 1873-84 (10 states). The havoc wreaked by these state-level defaults is part of the reason that so many states now have constitutional balanced-budget requirements.
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So defaulting on a $14T debt has no precedent. Figuring out which seniors or soldiers get paid in a multi trillion dollar budget has no precedent.
Guess what happens to the stock market when it encounters situations with *uncertainty*, never mind things that are UNPRECEDENTED.