With Social Security, the program experienced over a decade of uncertainty.

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Like the muddled response in high finance, the reaction to this program on the ground is filled with uncertainty.

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Now there is uncertainty in the industry because of proposed changes to the foreign worker visa program.

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Over time, by providing a market for these assets that does not now exist, this program will help improve asset values, increase lending capacity by banks, and reduce uncertainty about the scale of losses on bank balance sheets.

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"Stock markets hate uncertainty, and they've been fraught with deep uncertainty in so many different dimensions" this year, says Jared Bernstein, director of the Living Standards Program at Economic Policy Institute in Washington and a frequent commentator on policy issues.

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