Next Few Days Particularly Crucial: ‘Plan B’ Collapses, Hope Fading, Consumer Confidence Plunges Sharply, And Unemployment Checks Stop Dec. 29!!
Investmentwatchblog.com
December 21st, 2012
Boehner: It’s Obama’s move; ‘Plan B’ collapses; We expect negotiations to continue into the new year.
House Speaker John Boehner on Friday insisted he isn’t quitting fiscal-cliff talks with President Barack Obama, a day after a Republican bill intended to pressure the president in negotiations blew up in the House.
“We didn’t have the votes to pass it,” Boehner said at a Friday morning news conference. “That was the will of the House.” See live blog of Boehner’s press conference.
Republican leaders’ decision on Thursday night to abort a vote on the bill, which would have extended current tax rates for most Americans, threw fiscal-cliff talks into disarray with just 10 days remaining until automatic spending cuts and the expiration of Bush tax cuts kick in. Read about collapse of Plan B vote.
U.S. stocks (SNC:SPX) dropped sharply at the opening Friday morning, and some analysts said a deal was less likely to get done this year. See Market Snapshot.
“Bottom line, it seems unlikely that any legislation to address the main fiscal cliff policies will be passed before the end of the year. We expect negotiations to continue into the new year. It may take the imminent threat of a breach in the debt limit in February, or March at the latest, to force an agreement,” wrote Lewis Alexander of Nomura Securities.
The Rest…HERE
