In the interest of lending some context to the nearing fiscal cliff deadline, a look at some of the benchmarks for disaster. Who's afraid of the big, bad fiscal cliff? The obvious answer to that question is the White House, the Business Roundtable and the Federal Reserve – and really, not many others outside the Beltway. Economists including Dean Baker and Paul Krugman say that going over the cliff will not be so bad, given that we have weeks, if not months, to repair any economic damage. The Business Roundtable, which represents the CEOs of major US companies, counters that the fiscal cliff will hurt the meager ... (full story)