By ERIC PIANIN and MERRILL GOOZNER, The Fiscal Times
[Romney and Obama] agree that a stopgap measure is needed before January 1 to temporarily extend the raft of Bush era tax cuts and other measures set to expire. However, Obama has signaled his intent to veto even a few months’ extension of tax cuts unless families earning more than $250,000 a year are made to pay higher rates.
……. Romney, Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky insist that the Bush tax cuts be extended for all Americans, arguing that any increase in rates would discourage investments and job expansion by small businesses. Moreover, Romney has proposed further tax cuts of 20 percent across the board in exchange for capping tax breaks……..
via Fiscal Cliff: Two Candidates, Two Approaches.
Colin Twiggs is a former investment banker with almost 40 years of experience in financial markets. He founded PVT Capital (AFSL number 546090), which provides income and growth strategies to wholesale clients.
Colin also co-founded Incredible Charts and writes the popular Patient Investor newsletter.
Using a top-down approach, Colin identifies macro trends in the global economy and then combines fundamental and technical analysis to evaluate opportunities in sectors that stand to benefit.
Focusing on interest rates and financial market liquidity as primary drivers of the economic cycle, he warned of the 2008/2009 and 2020 bear markets well ahead of actual events.
The main question re fiscal cliff negotiation is whether defeated Democrats will revert to the whipped spaniel subservience they showed during the Bush administration, or obstruct like Tea Partiers. Like most, I think the lame duck Congress is likely to just punt the whole thing into next year. Re fiscal probity, the Republicans simply want to go back to applying their own brand of low-tax super-deficit “stimulus spending” targeted to military procurement, Mexican border control and law enforcement instead of education, health care, and social programs. Republicans like big government when it wears a uniform and packs iron. Democrats like big government in a shaggy haircut and tweedy sportcoat.
We tend to look at the issues as black and white, when what we are really offered is different shades of gray.