Are we sleepwalking into a calamity?

I'm stressing about the debt ceiling talks. Is it me, or is the stock market way to calm right now? It sure seems very possible--maybe likely--that the US defaults on its loans.

This is not a political post. I'm only interested in the consequences for stocks. I've personally sold a big chunk of money on some ETFs on the chance that there's a serious pullback.

I just don't see how they square this deal. Both sides are too far apart, and even if the negotiators strike a deal, there's no reason to think that the House will vote for it.

This is insane. Period. It's completely an own goal. When one thinks of the crises of the last half century--the Great Recession, the 9/11 attacks, the Dotcom bust, etc--yes, the govt. had a role to play, but it's always been a slow burn that created the conditions for a crisis. Here's it's just a crisis, all made up and concocted by politicians. There's no deficit or debt crisis at the moment: the US' govt's ability to borrow is rock solid. Literally, our political reps have engineered a crisis!

This is insane. And the stock market is going to be the first victim. The fallout will be on Main Street --and not just in the US.