Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of October 8, 2013?

Article Excerpt

Many investors seem surprised at how calm the stock market has acted in the face of the U.S. government shutdown. These investors worried that the 800,000 laid-off federal employees may react to the shutdown by putting off plans for buying cars, homes and so on. They feared this could put a crimp in the hobbling U.S. economic recovery, and that weakness could spread throughout the world economy. However, 800,000 people only make up a little more than 0.5% of the total U.S. workforce of 155,000,000 people. Moreover, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously this past Saturday to provide back pay to all furloughed federal employees once the shutdown ends. The Obama administration says it supports retroactive back pay for all affected workers. The Democratic-controlled Senate votes on the measure later this week. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense called back 350,000 of its civilian Pentagon workers. It did so under the authority of a law that President Obama signed into force a..