Business Leaders Annoyed By Policy Paralysis
When “fiscal cliff” negotiations started in November, business leaders, who had multiple rounds of talks discussions with the White House on the issue, sounded positive each time as they believed that both parties will succeed in averting the U.S. economy falling off the “cliff”. Unfortunately, many Chief Executives do not hold this feeling anymore after House of Representatives abruptly shelved John Boehner’s “Plan B”.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive of health-insurance company Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET), Mark Bertolini said that the way talks were being handled were“pitiful and embarrassing”, adding that chances that congressional leaders will reach a deal before the yearend were not too high.
“Set aside my interest as the CEO of a participant in the economy here—as an American, I’m embarrassed if that’s where we end up, . It feels like it’s starting to fall apart,” said Bertolini to Wall Street Journal.
Echoing Bertolini’s sentiment, Laurence Fink, chief executive of BlackRock Inc., a large asset-management company, commented, “Time’s running out and the holiday is coming, so the worst-case scenario is increasingly becoming a probable scenario.”
Sea change In Talks Within 4 Days
Earlier on Monday, sentiment was upbeat after both President Obama and house speaker John Boehner indicated over the weekend at making concessions on their respective proposals; nevertheless, talks stalled yet again on Wednesday when Boehner’s plan for raising taxes only on income earners over $1 million annually was downrightly rejected by the White House. The White House is in favor of extending Bush-era tax cuts for on people having income $400,000 annually.
Heated exchange of words between the two leaders did not help either, during the last round of talks. Boehner later said that regardless of veto threat from President Obama he would push his “plan B” in House on Thursday; but, he failed to muster enough support from fellow Republicans eventually leading the GOP to take off the proposal from the table.
Commenting on how talks were being handled in Washington, Thomas Wilson, Chief Executive of Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL), said, “What you see each side doing is saying, ‘Talk to me and I’ll tell you why the other person is wrong.’ And I’m like, ‘You know what, work with each other and try to figure out how to get this answered.”
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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