US shutdown: five unexpected consequences From cancelled jobs data to riskier debt and longer queues at America’s borders

 

(TFOA)

1 America, and especially North America, has entered into the time that was predicted by Moses and the prophets between him and Jesus. In the 24th chapter of Matthew there is a prophecy made by Jesus of the present time of America, without mentioning her name.

2 He referred to the country as a world, because this part of the earth is referred to in many places, by prophets and by Jesus himself, as a wilderness. The name America is not yet 500 years old, so the prophets referred to it as a wilderness in their prophecy.

3 It is terrible. I use the word “terrible” because it is not a thing that can be described as something mild, or something that is moving slowly, nor something that can be recognized as easily by the common people.

4 It is clear to all who can see that America has reached the stage about which she always has been warned. She always has wanted to keep it a secret, because of her so-called Negro slaves.

5 She never desired for the slave to know too much of what was in store for her, because of her enslaving and mistreating her slaves. She has reared them for the past 400 years — and she knows them. She knows how they think and how they react to her teachings, and she knows their fear of her. She knows her slaves, but the slaves do not know America — their slavemaster.

6 The great, dreadful and awful day (doom) is now in the doors and windows of America, and of the church — the religion of America. As long as Christianity worked, America thought she was safe, because it is one of the most deceiving and outright misleading religions of the world.

7 Allah (God) taught me that, if carefully examined, everything in the religion of Christianity is designed to make a slave out of Black people. If Christianity was in a wet rag and wrung out, every drop would write slavery for the Black man.

8 The world knows this now but the spiritually blinded, deaf and dumb American so-called Negroes, to whom I am calling and appealing to reason. I am calling them to reason with me on the truth and their own salvation, that is now in truth of self and kind and of the enemy of self.

(Guardian)

As the US shutdown enters its fourth day, more than 700,000 federal workers are still at home without pay, Barack Obama has scrapped his long-planned trip to Asia, and the Statue of Liberty and Yosemite national park are shuttered up. These effects were predicted from previous shutdowns – but what are some of the unforeseen effects on the economy?

 

Jobs data cancelled

Friday should have been a red-letter day for economists and investors, who were keenly awaiting the latest US jobs numbers. The non-farm payrolls report, a snapshot of the health of the world’s biggest economy, is hotly anticipated around the world, but has now been postponed.

 

Economists polled by Reuters think the US created 180,000 new jobs in September – before the shutdown began draining confidence out of the economy – but everyone will have to wait longer to know for sure.

 

CMC markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “Concerns about the US economy are growing, making it much less likely that we will see the start of any Fed tapering this year. After all, with no data to analyse, as well as adjustments in the coming months to compensate for the disruption, it will be much harder for the central bank to arrive at any meaningful conclusions as to the state of the US economy, as well as the extent of any damage the shutdown has done to it.”

 

Wall Street reform delayed (again)

The shutdown is bad news for attempts to reform the US financial system, as implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act gets kicked deeper into the long grass. Dodd-Frank, an ambitious attempt to overhaul the US financial system in the wake of the crisis, was passed three years ago, but implementation has been snail-like, with more than 60% of deadlines missed. Now, as the Washington Post reports, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has said it won’t work on implementation during the shutdown.

 

American debt more risky

Investors are getting increasingly antsy that the shutdown could trigger a US debt default, if the government fails to hike its debt limit by a 17 October deadline.

Following the US treasury’s stark warning that a debt default would have catastrophic effects on the American economy, as bad as or worse then the 2008 financial crisis, the costs of insuring against such an event rose on Thursday. The yield on short-term US treasury debt was up, a sign that investors consider them less safe.

As our live blogger Graeme Wearden points out in Friday’s business live blog: “The cost of insuring US debt against default has inched up to a new two-year high. Data from Markit shows that a one-year credit default swap (which would pay out if the US were to default on a 12-month bond) has risen by seven basis points to 58bps (Reuters flags up). That’s the highest rate since the last time America came close to hitting its debt ceiling … However, 58bps is still a very cheap price to pay insurance on a sovereign default. In practice, it means it costs $58,000 to insure $10m of US 12-month debt, up from $51,000 yesterday.”

 

Helicopter engineers sent home

United Technologies, a supplier of helicopters and engines to the US military, has told nearly 2,000 workers to stay at home on Monday. If the shutdown continues into next week, that number could double and the maker of Black Hawk helicopters is warning that more than 5,000 of its workers could be sent home if the political stalemate drags into next month.

 

Longer queues at the borders

The British and German governments have warned their citizens to expect longer waiting times at the US border and delays in getting visas. Although consular services are unaffected, the state department has said they would only remain open as long as “there are sufficient fees to support operations”, NBC reported.

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