Let The Santa Claus Rally Begin: Two More Years of Bush Tax Cuts

PAUL FARRELL: DO. NOT. BUY. STOCKS. UNTIL AFTER BANKS CRASH THE TERMS FROM JOHN AVLON:

THE TENTATIVE agreement would extend all the Bush tax cuts for two years, while extending unemployment benefits for the next 13 months. In addition, the payroll tax would be slashed as a new stimulus, while new equipment purchases and college-tuition tax credits would be kept in place. In an unexpected concession, the so-called “death tax” would be set at 35% with a $5 million exemption.

“In one fell swoop, you have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress ratifying the signature domestic policy accomplishment of the Bush administration,” Taegan Goddard of PoliticalWire.com told the Daily Beast.

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While the angry left decries President Obama's lack of tough fiscal love, the rest of us see it as a flight to economic sanity. Extending the cuts and reinstating the inheritance tax at 35% will only---at least for a while--- serve to buoy up the sinking job market, and the president knows it in his heart. And the president got his sought-after unemployment benefits extension. Sure, the battle will have to be fought again in two, and the economy is far, far from being out of the woods. However, for now, this is a small, heartening step. At this point, we should be grateful for whatever we can get with an out-of-control Fed printing and Congress spending astronomical amounts of fiat currency at truly unsustainable levels.

INTRADE WEIGHS IN

UPDATE: TAX DEAL SHOULD HELP ECONOMY