Aug. 2 is unlikely to be default day

Couple of weeks back we reported that the Aug. 2 date seemed to be soft, with UBS analyst John Savercool saying that the Treasury Department has the flexibility to move things around for about another week or so. Now Barclays Capital affirms those suspicions (via Real Time Economics):

It now appears that tax receipt inflows from July 14 to date have been considerably stronger than we were expecting. This suggests that the date on which the Treasury will run out of cash to pay its obligations might not be August 2; it might be around August 10 instead.

Such reports might help explain why Wall Street isn't in panic mode. With an hour of trading to go, the Dow is down about 70 points. Could be lots worse. But keep in mind that any delay in resolving the debt crisis will probably hurt the overall economy in the second half of 2011. That's a nuanced point unlikely to get much attention.