Little Apple's  Instablog

With a major breakthrough in fiscal cliff talks overnight. Both sides have made "significant concessions" for the first time:

The differences over how to resolve the "fiscal cliff" narrowed significantly on Monday night when the White House proposed leaving lower tax rates in place for everyone earning under $400,000.

That was a change of position for President Barack Obama who has been pushing for a $250,000 threshold although it is still far from Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's preference of $1 million.

"Overnight news on the fiscal cliff has been taken positively by the markets here in Europe after underperforming the U.S. recently," Securequity sales trader Jawaid Afsar said.

But others point out, that even if Obama and Boehner come to an agreement, they will have to "sell it" to their respective parties. This, like any other bill would have to be approved by the House and Senate when it is finalized. Some of the things coming out of this escapade show just how narrow minded some of these people in Washington are. Some of the Republicans are refusing to agree to anything that will raise taxes, however if they don't agree and we go over the cliff, taxes will go up for every single working person in the country, which they admit will make the economy worse:

"I won't support a deal that raises taxes because it makes the economy worse," Steve Scalise (R., La.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, made up of conservative House Republicans, "But I have yet to see any formal plan."

Many Democrats oppose the Social Security idea Mr. Obama has agreed to include. "The Republican plan to cut the Social Security benefits of millions of seniors in order to protect tax breaks for the richest 2% in America is neither fair nor balanced,'' said California Rep. Xavier Becerra, a member of the House Democratic leadership.

And to take money from millions of low income seniors to protect the rich will not bode well with anyone, except maybe some of the very most greedy. It reminds me of the old saying "Pigs get fat, and Hogs get slaughtered". Hopefully public pressure will shed some light on some of these idiotic ideas that are causing a roadblock to prosperity for this country. Because we are getting dangerously close to the edge of the cliff now. As a side note, I will admit that I am a moderate Republican, but not to a fault.

These new fiscal talks have the entire market breathing a whiff of fresh air, and (as noted above), it was a positive impact on foreign markets overnight.