Here was my employment overview post from earlier today.
Some exerpts from an interview with Mark A. Patterson, chief of staff at the Treasury Department 2009 until May 2013:
We have this unbelievably unique and privileged position to have always had the world’s trust that our treasury securities are the safest and most secure investment in the world. We have always paid all our bills on time and in full. For 200 years we’ve built that reputation. It’s worth an awful lot. I think that if we squandered it suddenly the potential is there for the whole world to reevaluate if that trust was misplaced. And once you lose somebody’s trust it’s pretty hard to get it back. …
Someone wrote up an analogy saying imagine the situation was reversed and a Democratic House said to a Republican president that we want to double the minimum wage or enact a sweeping gun control law or we throw the country into default. The underlying tactics being used here is totally irresponsible and can’t be accepted by any president.
• DELAYED: At 8:30 AM ET, the Employment Report for September was scheduled. The consensus was for an increase of 178,000 non-farm payroll jobs in September; the economy added 169,000 non-farm payroll jobs in August. The consensus is for the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 7.3% in September.