A CEO pleads with Congress

It was a meeting called the Select USA 2013 Investment summit, an event run by the commerce department to encourage foreign investors to invest in the United States.

It included the CEOs of BlackRock Investments, WalMart and Dow Chemical.

And they were bullish on the American economy – on energy, home building even our educational system. But Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock Investments, did see one cloud on the horizon.

“I’m very bullish in America, Washington D.C. is making it more difficult for me to remain bullish,” said fink.

Guess why …

“When you have a narrative that’s talking about default, talking of threat,” Fink went on.

He’s talking about the next potential debt crisis – which could still happen if the current budget negotiations don’t go anywhere.

“It is important that we drop the conversation about default. CEOs in the United States I spoke to, it doesn’t matter what industry, they are pausing. They’re putting a pause on hiring, they’re putting a pause on investing until they understand,” said Fink.

He said just the possibility of default is delaying job creation. Just the possibility costs companies money.

“I’m alarmed and the last thing I would say,” added Fink, “if Washington understood how tens of millions of dollars were wasted with every company setting up contingency plans if there was a default.”