alison deans is with us, senior adviser at varick asset management. nice to see you.ns for 2012, one that includes the fiscal cliff and one that doesn't? how do you prepare for the new year as an investor? >> pretty much. i mean, the outcome, if there is some type of healthy resolution to the fiscal cliff, even if they defer it for a week or two but come up with some healthy resolution, i think it bodes really well for global markets. if we wind up going into fiscal cliff and the world loses any faith in our government to accomplish anything that's helpful or relevant, i think that could impact the markets and it could impact the economy. >> there has to be a long-term impact, though. i mean, let's face it. any deal that they can come up with is an austerity deal. it will involve some form of tax increases, you would think, and some kind of spending cuts on the wealthy. that slows things down. it's not a growth initiative, necessarily. >> it's not a growth initiative, although my sense is most of it will be cutbacks in government and there will be some higher tax rate