What has the US govt shutdown got to do with you?

The United States government began shutting down its non-essential services early this week after its politicians failed to agree on a new budget for the financial year starting on Oct 1.

The impasse is largely a result of party politics, with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives pushing for cuts to President Barack Obama's health care act, and the Senate, controlled by Obama's Democrats, not budging.

Already, 800,000 federal workers have been forced to go on unpaid leave since Tuesday, with no guarantees of being paid later.

Now, there are fears the stalemate could drag on and complicate a separate but looming battle, over the raising of the country's debt ceiling. The US government is expected to hit this legal borrowing limit on Oct 17, and could run out of money to pay its debts if legislation is not passed to raise it.

Beyond the political implications, though, here are some ways the shutdown may affect you, some more detrimental than others.

1. US embassy stops providing non-essential services

The US embassy here might have replied to one of the last press questions in a while, when its spokesman said a few days ago that all non-essential services will be suspended. Apparently, dealing with the media is one such service. But Americans living here, and Singaporeans headed to the US for work and school have less to worry about, since the embassy will continue to provide consular and visa application services. The spokesman did not say what the other non-essential services are.

2. Lights-out at landmarks

Now is the perfect time to go to the US -- but probably only to shop and eat, because most of the other tourist destinations will be off limits. Famed national parks and monuments, from the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Yosemite Park in California and the Statue of Liberty in New York have been closed, with travellers camping in the parks asked to leave on Tuesday. Even roads leading to the parks have been blocked off where possible, so sneaking pictures will be hard. In Washington DC, all of the Smithsonian Institute's 19 museums and galleries have also been shuttered, including the National Gallery of Art, as well as the National Zoo.

With no access to all these places, you can bet on your Facebook feed soon being flooded with pictures of friends posing next to "closed" signs.

3. Websites going offline

Stargazers and panda fans will now have to find other forms of entertainment, with the Nasa website and the National Zoo's panda cams among the many government websites and social media sites taken offline. Academics, researchers and students who need US government data for their work, may have to look elsewhere too, since many federal sources of information needed for research work are now unavailable. These include the US Census Bureau's website, and Fedstats, the gateway to statistics from more than 100 US government agencies.

4. Research, funding halted

It is not a good thing that all scientific research conducted at public universities has been stopped. But looking on the bright side, students involved in research can now take a break. Then again, they may be in danger of taking a much longer break than they want, since research grants - most of which come from government funds - could also be cut.

5. Learning a new word

Anyone following the news on the US government shutdown would no doubt have come across the word: furlough. Government workers have been described as having been "furloughed" in news reports from around the world. What it means, is that they have been asked not to turn up for work, because there is not enough money to pay them. A suggestion on how to use it: "I have no time to go, so I think I'm going to furlough my gym membership this month."

6. New negotiation technique?

The story about how the US shutdown got linked to the debt ceiling crisis could become a lesson in reckless negotiations: make the stakes so high that the other side caves.

The budget gridlock, and resulting shutdown, was the result of Republicans and Democrats not seeing eye to eye on the health care reform law, dubbed Obamacare. So the shutdown, in effect, should have nothing to do with the debt ceiling.

But since there are only two weeks to the Oct 17 deadline for the US to raise its debt ceiling, some Republican lawmakers are now trying to link the two issues, by threatening to vote against raising the borrowing limit unless the Democrats agree to scrap health care reforms - essentially, putting the global economy on the line in their bid to block a domestic law they do not agree with.

Whether it will work remains to be seen.

7. Plunging the global economy into crisis

Shutdown aside, the more crucial issue is that the US government could run out of money soon and this could spark an economic crisis that will most certainly be felt in Singapore. By the end of 2011, Singapore investors and companies had also plonked $27.5 billion worth of foreign direct investment in the US, which will surely lose some of its value if the US economy starts teetering.

A failure by the US government to raise the debt ceiling will also force the US to default on the interest for its Treasury bonds, which could then lose its status as the safest financial assets in the world. If this happens, the value of the US Treasuries - of which Singapore holds about $101.6 billion - will almost certainly drop.

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