Getting Back to Business of Business
[Financial Analysis and Commentary]</br></br>As the world watches Washington try to come to an agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff," one thing seems certain: In any deal, the economy will have to fight through a heavier fiscal drag. That could put some companies in a pinch.</br></br>If President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress had their druthers, income-tax rates for earners in the top 2% would go higher next year. Republicans would like to leave the tax rates for everyone unchanged.</br></br>But any compromise that is reached will likely see the well-off sending a greater share of their income to the government. That will have an economic consequence.</br></br>The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the Bush tax cuts for top earners expired at the end of the year, with the cuts for the bottom 98% extended, it would shave about two tenths of a percentage point from gross domestic product next year.