[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 15067]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 MARKET IMPACT OF SHUTDOWN AND DEFAULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, it is important to 
look at the impact of the shutdown and a looming government default on 
our financial markets.
  On the shutdown, if the SEC uses all of its rainy-day money, it will 
be forced to close some key market oversight functions. There would be 
little to no oversight of exchanges. And if there were more trading 
glitches like the one that closed NASDAQ last month, the SEC wouldn't 
be able to respond quickly and problems could quickly spiral out of 
control. This could irreparably damage confidence in the safety and 
integrity of U.S. financial markets, and I've always said that markets 
run more on confidence than on capital.
  On the debt ceiling, defaulting on Treasury bonds could be truly 
catastrophic. The assumption that Treasury bonds are risk free is the 
most fundamental assumption in the financial markets. It underpins the 
entire world's bond market. If Congress doesn't lift the debt ceiling 
and we default, Treasury bonds would, for the first time in our 
history, no longer be risk free. The value of bonds around the world 
would instantly fall, and billions of dollars of wealth would be 
destroyed in the blink of an eye. The dollar could even lose its status 
as the world's reserve currency.
  We need to end the shutdown and lift the debt ceiling today. Jobs, 
growth, and the financial security of our country depend on it.

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