‘Cliff’hanger Ending?
Americans like two things in their entertainment: tense, down-to-the wire climaxes; and sequels. Last night’s resolution to the debate surrounding the so-called fiscal cliff provided both. Several anxious hours after the “official” deadline marking the edge of the fiscal cliff, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to avert the worst of the enormous tax hikes that would have occurred as the Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were set to expire on January 1. The bill made it through the Senate by a vote of 89 to 8 and passed the House of Representatives with a margin of 257 to 167. Overall, the impact of the agreement is slightly friendlier than we anticipated, though still leaves room for a sequel of sorts: two more months of policy uncertainty regarding the spending side of the cliff debate (this will coincide with a likely standoff over raising the government’s debt ceiling too). We’ve written a bit more here, but theses are some of the broad strokes.
