President Obama proposed a package of middle-class tax cuts and unempoyment benefits as a temporary solution to the looming ‘fiscal cliff.’ White House correspondent David Nakamura says Republicans may face pressure to pass the measure.

Hope the pols have, at the very least, an inkling that all this can kicking will eventually turn into a major market ass kicking.

The stage is set.  Everyone is nice and complacent.  We have a central bank that will be effectively monetizing the deficit next year and supported by a dangerous meme — more dangerous than “housing prices never go down” — that sovereigns can’t get into trouble if they a central bank willing to finance them.   Let’s see how that works out when a major debtor has lost market confidence and can’t rollover its maturities.

By the way, do you see what’s happening in Argentina today?

Hear the words of the former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan,  during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Reality eventually replaces hope, and the cost of the delay is a more abrupt and disruptive adjustment than would have been required if action had been more pre-emptive.

        Ernest Hemingway “kicking the can down the road.”

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