Over the “Fiscal Cliff”?

All afternoon, I’ve been writing about how different asset classes fared during last year’s debt ceiling crisis for this weekend’s issue of the Weekend Update, the idea being to see if there is anything applicable to this year’s fiscal cliff debate that, before long, will probably be referred to as  the “fiscal cliff crisis”.

After the election is over, charts like the one below from this Washington Post story will likely be popping up all over the place as elected officials begin huddling and trying to make a deal.

Forget about that stuff in 2014, 2015, and beyond, it’s what could happen in 2013 that will motivate lawmakers to start compromising, but, a lot depends upon how the elections turns out. Probably the most troubling thing that I’ve been reading lately is that more and more people think that it will be necessary to go over the cliff (for some undetermined period of time) before any real deals can be made.