Last week Obama was unwilling to negotiate on the two key issues in the current government pre-shutdown debacle: Obamacare and the debt ceiling. Things seem to have changed quite quickly, now that the government shutdown is just 11 hours away. From Reuters:
- OBAMA SAYS EVERYONE MUST SIT DOWN AND NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH, CAN'T HAVE TALKS UNDER RISK OF POTENTIAL U.S. DEBT DEFAULT
- OBAMA SAYS HE IS NOT RESIGNED TO A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TAKING PLACE
- OBAMA SAYS U.S. DOLLAR IS RESERVE CURRENCY OF THE WORLD, "WE DON'T MESS WITH THAT
- OBAMA SAYS EXPECTS TO SPEAK TO CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY
In other words, Obama blinked (for the n-th time in what has not been a good year for presidential leverage). And to think it took less than a 1% drop in the S&P (and a rather stubborn Republican party) to get "diplomacy" going...