While it is true that there has not been a shutdown of the federal government in more than 17 years, the current partial shutdown of the federal government is the 18th such shutdown since 1976. According to a recent “Investment Insights” article from Ashvin Chhabra of Merrill Lynch, the market impact, in the short term, of a U.S. government shutdown – which has been the defined result of a failure of Congress to pass a budget since 1981 – has been relatively insignificant and perhaps slightly positive for equity investors.

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