As recently as two weeks ago, virtually every Wall Street strategist was convinced that a new fiscal stimulus deal was inevitable, and would come somewhere in the $1.5- $2 trillion ballpark. After all, the cost of not passing such a deal was too great for both parties. As Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson wrote on the first of this month, "the noise is starting to build as supplemental unemployment benefits have stopped. The recovery in certain spending may be threatened should these benefits not be restarted in a timely fashion. It’s hard to believe that Congress fails to execute on some version of this bill, given ... (full story)