SmartPulse: Handicapping the odds of a government shutdown - SmartBrief

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SmartPulse: Handicapping the odds of a government shutdown

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Finance

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief for CFOs — tracks feedback from leading CFOs and senior finance executives. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: Will the federal government shut down?

  • Yes, it will happen this week — 40.16%
  • No, Congress and the White House will work out a compromise — 38.55%
  • Yes, it will happen this year — 12.85%
  • Not sure — 8.43%

Too soon: Despite the countdown clocks on the cable news networks, the federal government avoided a shutdown last week and Congress appears to be reaching a deal to keep government running until Sept. 30, when the 2011 fiscal year ends. The 40% of you who said the shutdown would happen last week were wrong, but you may not be far off the mark: Lawmakers must act in order to keep the government running beyond Thursday, when the latest spending fix expires.