Most investors have yet to become concerned that the debt ceiling will be breached, citing the last-minute resolution of the August 2011 showdown as a model that shows a deal will be achieved in time.

“None of my investors have so far called me to say ‘I want out,’ or ask ‘Is this really a crisis situation?’” Jim Paulsen, the Minneapolis-based chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, which oversees about $340 billion, said in a telephone interview. “The American psyche is in much better position today. They don’t look at every issue as Armageddon. It’s just another problem. They are not rushing to gold or U.S. Treasuries or to the dollar.”

Treasury Bills

About 41 percent of investors in a TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. survey said they haven’t made changes to their investments as a result of the government shutdown that began Oct. 1 or a possible default. Twelve percent said they’re “taking advantage of opportunities,” and 10 percent said they’ve moved into cash in the immediate term, according to the poll of 693 consumers conducted Oct. 3.

Concern that a default might happen is starting to show up in the market for short-term obligations of the U.S. Treasury.

Treasury bill rates rose after President Barack Obama rejected calls Oct. 8 to invoke the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to skirt Congressional approval for issuing new debt.

Rates on Treasury bills due on Oct. 17 fell three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 0.456 percent at 10:22 a.m. London time, after jumping 20 basis points yesterday. The yield was negative as recently as Sept. 26. The rate on bills maturing on Nov. 14 rose as high as 0.275 percent yesterday, compared with 0.02 percent on Sept. 30. Rates on bills due Nov. 21 were at 0.05 percent, down from 0.065 percent reached Oct. 4, the highest since July 3.

Money Markets

Some investors have been “rolling out those Treasury bills to future maturities” in December and into 2014, Megan McClellan, head of U.S. fixed income at JPMorgan Private Bank in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday. “For people that are nervous, rolling forward is OK, and also going to cash. We have seen, as we saw in 2011, some percentage going to deposits.”

Money-market mutual funds can cope with a short-term default in U.S. Treasuries as long as it doesn’t trigger the kind of investor run that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008, according to Fitch Ratings.