The financial markets are officially not OK with this fiscal cliff thing

Matt Phillips
qz.com
December 21, 2012

So sure, we’ve been talking about the fiscal cliff for months. But the operational assumption of much of Wall Street has long been that no one in Washington, DC would be stupid enough to essentially drive the US back into the recessionary territory they’ve spent the last four years clawing out of. Think again!

Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s decision not to hold a vote on the so-called Plan B option, apparently because he could not even get members of his own party to vote for a plan that had any tax increases in it whatsoever, seemed to get the attention of financial players. Here’s a look at how equities futures took the news.

One can’t help but be reminded of other prominent examples of Wall Street and Washington not being on the same page in recent years. Of course, who can forget Sept. 29, 2008 when stocks plunged after Congress voted down the first version of the bank bailout bill known as TARP. And then there was last summer, when the chaotic effort to raise the debt-ceiling and avoid a US default sent investors into a tizzy.

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This article was posted: Friday, December 21, 2012 at 9:44 am

Tags: domestic news, economics

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