Reporting in November 2012 in anticipation of the
across-the-board budget cuts and end of the Bush tax cuts, together expected to
amount to around $500 million for 2013 alone, the Wall Street
Journal observed that some large American corporations were “making
plans to slow investments, lay off workers and pay less-generous dividends if
Congress and the Obama administration don’t find a way to avert the so-called
fiscal cliff.” Such plans could represent a self-fulfilling prophesy wherein a
hit of just over a half trillion dollars in an economy of over $16 trillion is
nonetheless depicted by the media as a cliff. In actuality, it
could be more like taking a step down the stairs rather than falling off a cliff.
Even if the federal budget cuts and end of the Bush tax breaks in
2013 would not in themselves drive the U.S. economy off the cliff into an
economic abyss, the assumption of economic Armageddon could
build-up downward momentum to something even far worse than a return to
recession. The culprits are those in business, government and the media who
were engaging in a series of steadily loud exaggerations. It could justifiably
be asked, what’s the difference?
J.P. Morgan led banks in bailing out Wall Street in 1907. Source: Upsidetrader.com
The full essay is at "CEOs Warn the U.S. Government: No Fiscal Cliff!"
