Why America Needs a Stock Market Crash

A week into the partial government shutdown, and there’s still no end in sight to America’s latest self-inflicted fiscal crisis. The two sides, in particular the House Republicans, appear to be getting even more intransigent, and the October 17th deadline for a possible breach of the debt ceiling is now looming. Having just returned from a long-ago arranged six-day trip to Europe, I thought I must have missed at least one significant effort to reach a resolution. In fact, practically nothing had happened since I left, save that both sides have continued to talk past each other. Absent an unexpected softening in attitudes over the next few days, it may well take some outside intervention to break the deadlock.