November 21st, 2011 November 23rd: US’ day of reckoning Dear Subscriber Dividend Income Investor.com is continually evolving to meet the needs of our subscribers. Why not visit the site to see what you have been missing? This week is an important week in the US calendar – no, I am not talking about Thanksgiving - on Wednesday 23rd a little know Congress committee needs to agree on US’ deficit reduction plan. Six US congress men and women may need to admit that it has failed completely to agree on how to reduce Washington’s massive deficits. By law, the committee’s failure this week will trigger mandatory spending cuts that may cripple the US economy, while potentially triggering another credit rating event yet again. This story began last August Congress was in a panic. It needed to pass a bill that raised Washington’s debt ceiling — and fast. Failing to do so could have shut down the Federal government ... threatened the very survival of millions of American families and companies ... and, according to some start a 1930s style depression. Republicans in Congress agreed to vote for an increase in the debt limit, but demanded that substantial reductions be made in America’s massive trillion-dollar-plus federal deficits as part of any agreement. Almost immediately, Congress became hopelessly deadlocked on how to cut the deficit: Democrats refused to approve substantial cuts in entitlement spending and demanded tax increases on Americans earning $250,000 or more per year. Republicans rejected tax increases, saying they’d kill job creation and investment and demanded far larger cuts in entitlement programs. In the end, Congress postponed the inevitable: they passed a bill that raised the debt limit immediately and put off the decision on how to cut deficits by creating “The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction” — widely known as the Super Committee. The six Democrats and six Republicans on the committee were ordered to do — in just 90 days — what Congress itself has failed to do for decades to come up with a credible plan that reduces the US’ deficits by at least $1.2 trillion — and do so no later than Wednesday, November 23, 2011. But after nearly two months of wrangling, the Super Committee hasn’t even been able to agree on the most basic parts of the plan — like whether to go for $1.2 trillion in savings or to “go big” cutting $4 trillion or more. Whether the Super Committee succeeds or fails on November 23, there is another hurdle to take just a month later when ‘any’ deficit reduction plan will be put to the vote in a highly fragmented Congress. And that means, US’ day of reckoning is about to hit the US economy. For starters, the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts will be brutal. By law, the Defense budget will be cut by $492 billion. Plus, another $492 billion will be cut from health, education, drug enforcement, national parks, agriculture programs and Medicare: Cuts that will destroy thousands of jobs, and are likely to further reduce consumer spending. Those kinds of cuts could break the back of the already fragile U.S. economy and send it spiralling back into the second phase of this great recession, or, even worse into a depression. Impact of the first loss of the US’ credit rating On August 5, rating agency S&P downgraded U.S. debt due to “political risks” and Washington’s “rising debt burden.” At the same time, S&P warned that if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan, additional credit downgrades are likely. When S&P downgraded US debt . . . 1. Junk bond prices plunged nearly 10%; yields soared. 2. Bank stocks plunged 30%; investors who owned them lost nearly a third of their money in half of a month. 3. The Dow plunged 635 points in a single day and 2,000 points in two weeks. I repeat, when rating agency S&P cut Washington’s debt rating last August, the Dow Jones index plunged more than 600 points in a single day ... and 2,000 points in two weeks. Now, with Congress’ dithering what may happen if Congress fails to cut the deficit again? The ratings agencies will downgrade Washington just like they warned they would ... and stocks will collapse again — just as they did last August. Crucial dates to note down . . . Will the ratings agencies downgrade US’ debt soon after the November 23 Super Committee deadline? Or after December 23, when Congress is set to vote on any plan the committee offers. Or on January 15, when President Obama is supposed to sign the deficit-reduction bill? Get ready! Benefit from the impending sell-off the next few months, if and when Congress can’t agree on a credible debt reduction plan. Know when and which dividend paying companies to buy. When to sell. Our Dividend Value Profiles show you what we buy, when we buy and when we sell in our own real-money Dividend Income Portfolio. Click Here for more information. Until next time. Kind regards Steven Dotsch Editor Early Retirement Investor.com Follow me at Twitter.com - @Investoretire Know someone who'd like to receive Dividend Alerts themselves? Simply forward this link to anyone you think could benefit from our publication: https://www.early-retirement-investor.com/dividend-alerts.html Dividend Alerts is an unregulated product published by EMAR Publishing, publishers of Early Retirement Investor.com EMAR Publishing is not registered as an investment advisor or financial advisor. 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