The Fiscal Cliff Isn't the Real Problem

In this video, author Jack Schwager discusses his views on the fiscal cliff. Going over the cliff has a lot of investors worried, but 2012 was actually a great year for a lot of sectors as the economy continues to recover worldwide. To learn more about a few ETFs that have great promise for delivering profits to shareholders in a recovering global economy, check out The Motley Fool's special free report, "3 ETFs Set to Soar During the Recovery." Just click here to access it now.

Brendan Byrnes: Do you think there are any lessons, maybe about the fiscal cliff? Do you think this is overblown? Do you think it's something that investors need to be worried about? What do you think?

Jack Schwager: It's more a political question. It's important from an economic standpoint because, unless the problem is really corrected -- and the problem is not the fiscal cliff. That kills me, too. People are so worried about the fiscal cliff. That's not the problem.

The problem is, unless there are some real changes made, we're going to really have serious problems, like we can't continue going on with such a mismatch in revenue and expenditures, and nobody is addressing it seriously.

The fiscal cliff is actually a move in the right direction, but it's just not done in the most efficient way, so that's a problem.

Now, the fiscal cliff itself, it's going to get resolved. One way or the other, it'll get resolved, but it won't take care of the problem. It'll take care of people's worry. The fact that the real problem, the gap between spending and revenue, that is going to be there, and that's going to be something that will affect us for years to come.

Brendan: Right. Well, Jack, thank you so much for your time. It's Jack Schwager, author of Market Sense and Nonsense. Again, I highly recommend the book. I kind of wish you wrote it about a decade earlier so I could read it in college.

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