US is undoubtedly in the middle of a very harsh situation and whoever says otherwise, obviously hasn’t seen it in a bigger-picture-kind-of-way. The fact that US is now faced with an economic blow; tons of debt ceiling drama, has pushed Mr. Obama to take a step up and calls for a shutdown. A shutdown with zero progress and for which also to be closed as soon as the fifth day ends.

Despite Government’s various attempts at avoiding any further debts, none of them worked- and worst is that they still need to pay for the bills. Borrowing a few more is just out of question, because that would just push the debt above the limit. For them to avoid default, they have to raise their debt ceiling. Other options are simply impossible to achieve; it’s either taxes have to go up really high, or spending must be reduced greatly. So the only ‘smart’ option left would be to raise the debt ceiling.

If none of them works, then recession, bond market crisis, declining stock market, low value of dollar, unemployment would likely to occur, and if that’s what happen, then US is certainly heading towards a big crisis.

References: 

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/news/economy/whats-up-with-the-debt-ceiling/?hpt=hp_t1

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/07/news/economy/shutdown-economic-impact/index.html?iid=SF_BN_LN

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24419564