China isn't the only country sick of American governance by hostage situation. The rest of the world believes the situation we're in to be a global embarrassment (yet again) only this time around they're facing a US debt default brought on by Republican petulance, which would hurt the entire world economy.
Our neighbors want us to resolve this nonsense permanently.
Leaders at World Bank and International
Monetary Fund meetings on Sunday pleaded, warned and cajoled: the United
States must raise its debt ceiling and reopen its government or risk
“massive disruption the world over,” as Christine Lagarde, the fund’s
managing director, put it.
The fiscal problems of the United States overshadowed the official
agendas for the meetings, with representatives from dozens of countries —
including two of Washington’s most important economic partners, Saudi
Arabia and China — publicly expressing worries about what was happening
on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
The leaders came to Washington to talk about the international recovery,
Ms. Lagarde said in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet the
Press.” “Then they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue,” she
added. “They found out that the government had shut down and that there
was no remedy in sight.”
“So it really completely transformed the meeting in the last few days,” Ms. Lagarde said.
And something better happen sooner rather than later, because even the chance of a US default is likely to damage the global economy.
Many leaders at the World Bank and I.M.F. meetings said they believed
the impasse would be resolved before Thursday, when the government would
be at severe risk of not having enough money to pay all its bills on
any given day going forward.
But they pressed Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and the Federal Reserve
chairman, Ben S. Bernanke — who were both at the I.M.F. meeting — on
the issue, predicting that even a near-default would lead to higher
borrowing costs and a slowdown of the global economy.
“This cannot happen, and this shall not happen,” Baudouin Prot, chairman
of the French bank BNP Paribas, said at a meeting of the Institute of
International Finance also being held in Washington. “The consequences
of this would be absolutely disastrous.”
Mr. Lew acknowledged the threat. “Our work begins at home,” he said. “We
recognize that the United States is the anchor of the international
financial system. With the deepest and most liquid financial markets,
when risk rises, the flight to safety and to quality brings investors to
U.S. markets. But the United States cannot take this hard-earned
reputation for granted.”
Participants at the meetings remained on edge, given the gravity of the
threat. Ms. Lagarde said “that lack of certainty, that lack of trust in
the U.S. signature” would disrupt the world economy.
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, issued his own urgent
appeal. “The fiscal standoff has to be resolved without delay,” he said
in a statement released by the I.M.F.
In other words, we don't have until Thursday. We could see damage even as early as today if it becomes clear idiot Republicans will let the country burn just to hurt President Obama.
And that should be painfully clear to all of us by now. the entire world could pay for the Tea Party's Obama Derangement Syndrome, and they're going to come calling to collect.
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