China's stimulus package was the earliest and best-known example of fiscal shock and awe.
"Never have households and companies been subjected to such a fiscal shock, " said Gilles Carrez, conservative chairman of the French parliament's finance committee.
The maintenance of the Aaa with a negative outlook into 2014 is highly unlikely unless the method adopted to achieve debt stabilization involved a large, immediate fiscal shock with a resulting unstable economic situation.
FORBES: Moody's Says U.S. Has Until End Of 2013 To Save AAA Rating
What that entire discussion fails to acknowledge is that the debt problem today is not so much of bloated, spendthrift governments in the periphery of Europe, but the fiscal after-shock of the 2008-2009 worldwide market meltdown of government revenues.
The shock of falling down the fiscal cliff might reveal that it is finally time to get serious.
FORBES: 5 Reasons Why The U.S. Should Jump Off The Fiscal Cliff
The historical data used to predict recessions in the past are less useful if a new shock cannot be offset with fiscal and monetary policy.
Most pundits and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office have noted that the shock of tumbling over the fiscal cliff could kill off a still-fragile recovery and possibly tip the U.S. economy back into recession.
It is going to be hard, it is going to be a shock, but the U.S. needs to jump off the fiscal cliff.
FORBES: 5 Reasons Why The U.S. Should Jump Off The Fiscal Cliff
That means structural reforms to raise productivity, fiscal reforms to boost growth and a strong monetary stimulus, all at once, to shock the economy back to life.
With the defense industry at a crossroads in the aftermath of the Presidential election, awaiting resolution of the fiscal cliff and the future of their relationship with the government, the sudden move at Lockheed comes as a shock.
FORBES: Lockheed CEO-Elect Kubasik Fired Over Improper Relationship With Female Subordinate
应用推荐