The lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
US still faces political fights on spending, debt
The lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writers /
January 2, 2013
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The Dow dropped 635 points in panicked selling the first day of trading after the S&P announcement.
Outside Washington, the economy has been getting some good news. Europe’s financial crisis appears to have eased. And the U.S. real estate market finally appears to be recovering from the housing bust.
But partisan divide has left businesses and consumers wondering what’s going to happen to their taxes and to federal contracts.
Companies have plenty of cash. But they reduced spending on industrial equipment, computers and software from July to September, the first quarterly drop since mid-2009 when the economy was still in recession. And hiring has been stuck at a modest level of about 150,000 new jobs per month this year.
Consumer confidence fell in December for the second straight month, according to a survey by the Conference Board, which blamed the drop on worries about the fiscal cliff. The uncertainty is also believed to have hurt holiday shopping, which grew at the slowest pace this year since 2008.
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