Washington's Impact May Be Poised to Wane
A few months ago I believed that, unless Congress were backed against the wall, it would not act on the "fiscal cliff." Well, on Meet the Press Sunday morning, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said something quite interesting. He remarked that, if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (who had been on the show earlier) had ruled out a government shutdown over the debt ceiling, he'd bet the market would rise "200 points" Monday. I will assume he meant the Dow and not the S&P 500!
As I watched this, I thought it confirmed my views: Congress is motivated by a gun against the head, and not by doing the "right thing." In this case the gun to the head was the stock market, which sank as we headed into the last day of 2012 -- so they figured out a way to get a deal done. Now, if we can extrapolate from this senator's views, maybe we can confidently say there is no way they will do anything "difficult," since the markets might not like it. They are reacting to the markets, as we all assumed they would in era following the Troubled Asset Relief Program's passage....348 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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