President Barack Obama facing fiscal cliff as stock markets fall

Telegraph
" The president faces an urgent challenge to prevent the gridlock that scarred his first term as fears grew that politicians will fail to cut a deal to stop the economy falling over a 'fiscal cliff'. More than $600bn (£380bn) of tax rises and cuts in government spending are due in early January. Failure to avoid the cliff will plunge the world's largest economy back into a slump and disrupt the global economy's still fragile global recovery."