The looming ’fiscal cliff’ -- cataclysm or compromise?

businessweek.com

By NBC's Mike Viqueira

While no can say for sure how the negotiations to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and impending across-the-board spending cuts -- will unfold, the betting here is it will get ugly before it gets better.

First, virtually no one believes what happened last time will happen this time: President Obama won't cave on extending tax cuts for upper income earners.

So will House Republicans come to the table voluntarily, before the first of the year? Or will it require all hell breaking loose -- an expiration of the income and payroll tax cuts, sequestration, the estate tax, and the AMT kicking in, cap gains and dividend rates rising -- before they are forced to come kicking and screaming to an agreement?  More >>