It's often said 401(k) investors, thanks to the vagaries of behavior psychology, make decisions for long-term goals based on short-term emotions (see, "The Choice 401k Investors Must Make Before They Choose"). If only they could throw away all those dangerous emotion and dispassionately decide to pick investments best suited for their time horizon.

Which got me to thinking, don't ask me how, about the current debate in Washington about this whole Fiscal Cliff thing. With virtually non-stop media coverage since, oh, I don't know, maybe at least this past summer, it's universally accepted the failure to avert the Fiscal Cliff will amount to an economic calamity of Biblical proportions.

Let's set aside this amusing thought for the moment (after all, the fundamental problem of our economy has roots much deeper than the Fiscal Cliff), and, instead, suggest a too obvious compromise that makes so much sense, it's guaranteed Washington won't even consider it.