SHOCK! It's past 6:00 pm EDT, but no debt deal!

The Republican self-imposed deadline of 4:00 EDT to announce a framework to calm markets down before their openings in Asia passed without a plan.  For the record, the TSE and the Hang Seng open around 8:00 pm EDT, so they could still come up with an announcement, but I don't think so.  (Early market trading in Asia already started.)

It was never going to happen -- as I've been saying for months now -- because Republicans just don't see the threat in keeping the debt ceiling in place.  Just yesterday Rep. Camp (R-MI) insisted that their share of any compromise, was the act of lifting the debt ceiling, sending a clear signal of intractability of the issue.

Watch his Fox News interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday.  Wallace pins Boehner on point that there is hardly any cooperation and compromise if the House Republicans passed a bill (Cut Cap and Balance) without support from the Senate and the President.  Boehner has no actual answer.

And now, Sen. Reid (D-NV) has a preliminary plan for a dollar-for-dollar cuts to debt increase of $2.5T without revenue increases, which is calling Boehner's bluff.  If House Republicans won't accept this deal from Democrats, Republicans will lose all credibility, and possibly get wiped out in the 2012 elections.

[Edit: You can watch the US stock futures prices fluctuating right now, here. Dow Jones Industrials as of 6:09 EDT Sunday, is down 107 points.]