The lights went out in Washington at midnight, not for want of electricity but for want of consensus. Lawmakers there failed to agree on a stopgap funding plan, forcing the US government into a shutdown. At first glance, it seems like a domestic political impasse. But as the world’s largest economy grinds down parts of its administration, furloughing close to 800,000 federal workers and pausing critical services, the tremors are felt far beyond Capitol Hill. Global markets hate uncertainty, and the United States is the very fulcrum of global finance. And after the continuous tariff and policy shocks exerted by the Donald Trump administration, the news of shutdown is not making positive noise at all.

On night intervening September 30-October 1, the US Senate’s inability to pass a last-ditc

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