Salient to Investors:
Robert Frank at Cornell University writes:
For his cameo appearance in the movie “Analyze This”, Warner Brothers ended up paying Tony Bennett $200,000 instead of the $15,000 they first offered because they did not make their offer at the outset when they would have had much more leverage.
Republicans face a hurdle similar to Warner Brothers because both sides know that failure to reach agreement before January will be much more costly to the Republican negotiators than to the president.
Businesses will hire additional workers whenever the bottom line benefits exceed their pay, no matter how rich or poor the business owner might be.
The fiscal cliff is a bad metaphor because middle-class tax rates would be unlikely to remain higher for long, and so would have little impact on overall spending. The nation faces not a fiscal cliff, but rather a gentle fiscal slope.