Sir Martin Sorrell says Washington’s game of chicken over credit is damaging Brand America
WPP’s chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell has weighed in on the stalemate between the White House and Republicans over the extension of the country’s borrowing limit, saying it is damaging ‘Brand America’.
“If you were running a company like this, and stopped paying your workers, you’d get fired. [Shutdown] is almost like going into Chapter 11 or bankruptcy. The Americans I talk to are frustrated and embarrassed,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “[The] impact on Brand America is not good at all.”
The White House and the Republicans reached a stalemate at the weekend on conversations to extend the country’s $16.7trn borrowing limit, a stand-off which has already forced the government to put nearly 800,000 workers on unpaid leave and suspend many services.
However, the Republicans have thus far maintained that they will not agree to a budget that would allow the government to continue functioning unless Obama makes certain policy changes, namely the delay of Obamacare by a year.
If an agreement is not reached by October 17, America would default on its debt and effectively run out of credit which, says Sorrell, would be “catastrophic” for the global economy.
However, the CEO added that Congress would not allow this to happen.