Wall St. CEOs Urge Congress to Solve Debt Problem
By: Wall Street's biggest CEOs weighed in to the nation's debt ceiling debate Thursday, firing off a letter to every member of Congress and the president of the United States urging compromise in the debt ceiling debate and action "this week."
The letter, signed by Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs , Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and a slew of other financial heavyweights, did not endorse a specific proposal to raise the debt ceiling, but said, "We write to you today to urge you to act this week to reach an agreement that will ensure that our Nation continues to meet all of its financial obligations, and that will entail meaningful and concrete steps to put our Nation on a sound fiscal footing."
"The consequences of inaction—for our economy, the already struggling job market, the financial circumstances of American businesses and families, and for America’s global economic leadership—would be very grave."
The letter, which was sent early Thursday and obtained by CNBC, represented the first time the biggest banking CEOs had spoken with one voice in the debt-ceiling debate.
"Our economic recovery remains very fragile," the CEOs wrote. "A default on our Nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence—raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the Dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets—and, therefore, dramatically worsening our Nation’s already difficult economic circumstances."
