President Obama said Thursday that the government shutdown and threat of default did unnecessary damage to both the U.S. economy and the country's reputation abroad.
Standard & Poor's concluded that the disruption subtracted about $24 billion from the economy and is likely to trim more than half a percentage point off growth in the final three months of the year.
Some of the businesses that lost money during the shutdown will gain it back, as federal workers and the government make up for spending that was deferred. But there are likely to be longer-term repercussions, according to Beth Ann Bovino, S&P's chief U.S. economist.
She says the fact that the agreement only keeps the government funded until mid-December is a worry and leaves hundreds of thousands of federal workers with lots of uncertainty.
"Will you get your paycheck, or will we go back on furlough without pay again? Concerns of a repeat, I am sure, are on people's minds and that's coming in to the holiday season," she says.
Bovino says that could make the most important shopping season of the year pretty ho-hum. And it's not just federal workers who will hold back because of that uncertainty. Other workers will, too, as well as businesses that might decide to put off hiring and investment.
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