6 long-term effects of the government shutdown

The pain has just begun

Flu shot
(Image credit: (Tim Boyle/Getty Images))

Now that the first government shutdown in 17 years is over and we've avoided defaulting on the debt (at least for a little while), life in America is returning to normal. Federal employees are going back to work. Museums and parks across the country are reopening. The panda cam at the National Zoo is up and running again.

But that doesn't mean we won't be feeling the consequences of the shutdown and debt ceiling fiascoes in the weeks, or maybe even months, to come. Thanks to the political theater in Washington, the full faith and credit of the U.S. government has once again been called into question and an already shaky economic recovery has been handed a major setback. It's going to take some time to dig out of this self-inflicted hole.

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Laura Colarusso is a freelance journalist based in Boston. She has previously written for Newsweek, The Boston Globe, the Washington Monthly and The Daily Beast.