Regulation

My favorite lobbying move of the year came in early May, in, of course, Washington, D.C.

While the U.S. Congress views the convergence of more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set for Jan. 1 as a “fiscal cliff,” the metaphor misses the economic reality of what could follow.

As the week winds down with lawmakers and the White House still at odds over dueling proposals to avert the fiscal cliff, a growing number of voices in the debate are suggesting that the year-end deadline could pass without a deal, initiating a set of across-the-board tax increases and automatic spending cuts.

Wall Street’s cost cuts and dismissals, which have helped erase more than 300,000 financial- industry jobs in the past two years, are far from over.

Late night comedian David Letterman joked, “Everybody is talking about the fiscal cliff. And I'd be talking about the fiscal cliff too, if I knew what the hell it was.” Your clients and prospects are probably just as worried, and twice as confused.

Mark Cahn, general counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is leaving the agency at the end of the year to return to the private sector.

Mark Cahn, general counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is leaving the agency at the end of the year to return to the private sector.

A top White House official reiterated on Tuesday that President Obama is committed to the 28% cap on the value of tax exemptions for high income earners, which includes municipal bond interest.

The new platform will allow advisors to spend less time managing regulatory and compliance issues, and more time growing their businesses.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would try to use a procedure known as a discharge petition to bring a Senate-passed bill for extending the middle-class tax cuts to the floor of the House.