Fear of the “Fiscal If”

As I write this, one can hardly avoid the hyperbole concerning America’s Fiscal Cliff drama---all huffery and very little substance. The Washington Post, NPR, Reuters, ABC News, Wall Street Journal, CNN, CBS, Fox, Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post and USA Today are full of breathless puffery. What to do? Where to run (other than toward your favored extreme)? The sky is falling and life will never be the same. Wall Street stands transfixed like a deer in the headlights, fingers in their butts with a look of abandonment reflected in those well fed eyes. Something must be done, they all rant and by something, they mean their particular something.

The better question is should something be done? This not-so-humble commentator thinks no, nothing should be patched together in a last-ditch effort to avoid enforcing the Budget Control Act. Leave it the hell alone and cruise on over. It’s not a cliff anyway, but far more of an ‘if’ we don’t do that, this will be the outcome. And in…