White House press secretary Jay Carney appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday expressing the typical doom and gloom about what the government shutdown means to Americans and the economy.
After he was done, CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera told the MJ crew about how the markets were shrugging off the shutdown due to its likely limited impact on the economy and punctuated her thoughts by saying, “Jay Carney’s been fear mongering on your network” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA, CNBC: The markets are not nearly as nervous as originally thought. We did see a sell-off yesterday, but a little more sanguine approach this morning. I think if it doesn't last very long, which is the assessment of a lot of folks, then the government shutdown doesn't necessarily have a big impact. There's a lot of skepticism that it has any kind of huge impact at all. Down 128 points yesterday, 10 points for the S&P as well.
I've been listening with interest to what you guys have been talking about for the last 15 or 20 minutes. I do want you to know that there is a strong school of thought out there says if we hit the debt ceiling, that it’s not Armageddon, that we don’t see skyrocketing interest rates.
They keep saying default on our debt. We just heard Jay Carney say that. The chances of that happening are next to zero because you can prioritize your payments. Defaulting on debt means the U.S. government would not make an interest payment on a U.S. treasury. Highly unlikely. And the other thing is if you pay that late, if it were even to happen, that is not default, and for investors to suddenly sell U.S. treasuries because there’s going to be a three-day payment late, highly unlikely because there are not many other choices in the world.
A bit later, co-host Mika Brzezinski said, “Michelle, next time tell us how you really feel.”
Caruso-Cabrera responded, “Fear mongering. Jay Carney’s been fear mongering on your network.”
Indeed he has.
As NewsBusters reported a few hours ago, the markets were completely shrugging off the shutdown and actually opening higher.
At press time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.37 percent, the S&P 500 0.66 percent, and the NASDAQ 0.86 percent.
So much for the doom and gloom.
(HT WFB)
