A couple of articles on the fiscal slope negotiations:
Suzy Khimm at the WaPo has the initial White House proposal: The White House’s fiscal cliff proposal
Jonathan Weisman at the NY Times writes: G.O.P. Balks at White House Plan on Fiscal Crisis
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal on Thursday to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits.
For the economy this proposal would resolve the “fiscal cliff” uncertainty, significant reduce the fiscal drag, and also reduce the deficit. Of course there are other agendas too – this proposal is a starting point – but hopefully eliminating the debt ceiling nonsense is part of the final agreement.
My guess is an agreement will be reached, perhaps in early January after the tax cuts expire, so politicians can claim to be cutting taxes.
Friday:
• At 8:30 AM, the Personal Income and Outlays report for October will be released. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in personal income in October, and for 0.1% increase in personal spending. And for the Core PCE price index to increase 0.2%.
• At 9:45 AM, Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for November. The consensus is for an increase to 50.3, up from 49.9 in October.
The last question for the November economic prediction contest (Note: You can now use Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID to log in).
