Wall Street Unfazed by Fiscal Cliff

The view from that cliff isn’t looking so bad on Wall Street. Despite the dire warnings from Washington about the lack of a deal to prevent the so-called fiscal cliff, Wall Street investors are pretty much unfazed. With a few exceptions, the stock market has remained fairly static since the election—despite taking a nosedive immediately afterward. “Wall Street and Washington are different worlds and speak in different languages,” said one analyst, Chris Krueger. Analysts almost universally agree that a recession is likely if no deal is made to prevent the automatic draconian spending cuts from taking effect and the Bush tax cuts from being repealed—some have indicated that the short-term consequences would not be quite so dire.