Michael McAuliff — How The Government Shutdown Will End: 'The Market Is Just Going to Smash Us'

"I'm apprehensive that we're looking at at least a couple of weeks until we bump up against the debt ceiling and the market is an outside force that pistol whips us into our senses," said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who has already begun preparing for the showdown by circulating a letter -- with nearly all the Democrats signing on -- calling for a clean raising of the limit.

However, Welch was not sure even presenting a unified front would move Republicans -- including those who are sympathetic.

"Ultimately what will get them to move is the market reaction. The market is just going to smash us for our congressional abstinence," he said. "At that point they'll cave. And Boehner knows that."...

"If we default, that will be a signal that we've gone from dysfunction to disintegration," he said. "I talk to lots of my Republican colleagues and friends and they're dismayed." 

The Huffington Post
How The Government Shutdown Will End: 'The Market Is Just Going to Smash Us'
Michael McAuliff

US soft power is already eroding. A default, even very temporary, would finish it. It would basically be a very public announcement that the US is turning its back on world leadership.