We did a quick scan of conference call transcripts from S&P 500 companies this week, and found no shortage of executives blaming Washington for the uncertainty in the economy and business outlooks. The table below highlights just some of the comments from today’s conference calls, and on page two we provide a list of selected additional comments from earlier this week. Our favorite came from the Bristol-Myers (BMY) call where one executive noted that, “Nobody knows what's going on in Washington right now. I think the people in Washington themselves do not know it.”
Whether or not you are of the view that Washington is the cause for the recent uncertainty or just a convenient scapegoat, the fact is that the longer it provides an excuse for companies to sit on their hands and ‘wait things out’, the longer it will act as an anchor to economic growth. interview that the debt ceiling issue was adding uncertainty for businesses.
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