Our Economic Times: Optimism for 2013?

Nicholas Mangee

Abstract

With recent fiscal calamities close in the nation’s rearview and others approaching fast, the U.S. finds itself inside the eye of a self-generated budgetary tornado. What’s more, congressional disagreement has done nothing but provide unnecessary headwinds to short-run economic growth. At the eleventh hour, Congress addressed the tax increases and sequestration, narrowly averting the so-called fiscal cliff. Income and capital gains taxes on the top earners increased and automatic cuts to defense and discretionary federal programs were delayed until March 1...