Sometimes, less is more. David Frum - a frequent flyer to this column - sums up last year's national nightmare both succinctly and accurately. No need to add my two cents. That would only defeat the purpose wouldn't it?
Tea Party activists gathered on Capitol Hill on July 27 for a "Hold the Line"
rally to protest raising the debt ceiling. (Win McNamee / Getty
Images)
How much harm did it do? It nearly wrecked the recovery, Wharton profs Justin
Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson argue
in today's Bloomberg View:
High-frequency data on consumer confidence from the
research company Gallup, based on surveys of 500 Americans daily, provide a good
picture of the debt-ceiling debate’s impact (see chart). Confidence began
falling right around May 11, when Boehner first announced he would not support
increasing the debt limit. It went into freefall as the political stalemate
worsened through July. Over the entire episode, confidence declined more than it
did following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008. After July
31, when the deal to break the impasse was announced, consumer confidence
stabilized and began a long, slow climb that brought it back to its starting
point almost a year later.
Let's go to their charts.
Consumer confidence first:
The effect on employment next:
Let's never, ever do anything like this again, please.
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