>>>It's happened.
>>
>>If you only just found out you're probably the last person in the western world to do so :-}
>>
>>Must admit, although things looked tougher than usual, I thought they would still scrape in under the wire......
>
>We all knew it might be coming but it is still a shock to the system. Usually they figure out a way to work things out.

Any guess as to how long it might take this time ?

The Beeb are suggesting that a three-week shutdown could reduce GDP for the U.S. this quarter by 1% - bit of a knock to the recovery (globally?)