In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; and Executive Branch.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week -

If Congress is acting like children, as some have opined, then last week had all the roller coaster moments from adolescence, as the potential for a deal went from unlikely to probable to broken down. Last week closed with slight optimism for a resolution of the uncertainty that Congress would pass a debt limit increase before the ‘x-date’ of government default. On Thursday, President Obama had a meeting with Republicans, during which he neither accepted nor rejected a House plan to increase the debt limit for six weeks. With both sides describing the meeting as “constructive,” though inconclusive, stocks rallied with the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P all rising by the end of the day Thursday. On Friday, House Republican leaders offered a plan which would reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling for six weeks. Despite hopes that the offer could address the looming default and the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) disparaged the plan, saying that he does not believe a “six-week delay of a catastrophic default is enough time to give the economy the confidence it needs.” By the weekend, the potential consensus around a plan floated by Senator Collins had melted and it looked like Senators Reid and McConnell were back trying to reach a deal, but success was alluding them at the writing of this note.