Since the adjustment of the covered earnings ceiling depends on nominal wage growth, if inflation takes off or if real wages grow even more rapidly, the covered earnings ceiling will grow at an even faster pace.

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For education she can tap earnings with no ceiling and avoid that 10% penalty.

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The summer 2011 debt ceiling standoff also destroyed bank earnings.

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Ok, there was a tremendous amount of news flow last week, including the Inauguration, debt ceiling developments out of Washington, blockbuster earnings reports, economic data, Davos, and many other items.

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This expense looks like a constant comparable with Intel and other iconic tech houses like Microsoft, a glass ceiling comparable to the 20 percent of earnings awarded key employees, annually by many tech houses.

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However, Cisco pointed out concerns in its last quarter earnings that the hike in the U.S. debt ceiling and the ongoing European debt crisis could weigh on its revenues in Q1 2012 and projected a low single digit growth for the quarter.

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But even people earning below the ceiling are likely to benefit, especially if their current earnings are relatively high and grow relatively rapidly in the future.

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The ceiling on the related payroll tax should be increased to cover 90% of earnings, from 86% now.

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