Wall Street Starts Getting Nervous About the Tea Party

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From the Wall Street Journal:

Worries about government debt rocked capital markets on both sides of the Atlantic Monday, as fears that the Greek crisis will spread combined with concerns at the standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling….Adding to the market woes were indications that, after months of shrugging off the debate over the U.S. debt ceiling, investors are getting edgy over Washington inaction ahead of an Aug. 2 deadline. The discomfort was reflected in the recent underperformance of the 30-year Treasury bond, traders and analysts said.

Hey, maybe investors are finally starting to understand that a big chunk of the Republican Party is really, truly batshit insane. They’re not faking it! But here’s a guess: all it will take to get the tea partiers in line is a thousand-point drop in the Dow. Suddenly, playing games won’t seem like quite so much fun anymore, and it’s about the only thing that seems to get their attention. I figure it should happen sometime around August 3rd or so.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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