We might as well join the fiscal cliff discussion with this cheery note

…The University of California system estimates it would lose $335 million in federal research funding this fiscal year, according to Christopher Harrington, spokesman for UC’s Washington, D.C., office. That represents roughly 8 to 9 percent of UC’s research portfolio from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy…

And on the state budget:
…Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, said he believes the U.S. would experience a “mild recession” absent a fiscal cliff deal, largely because of lower consumption. He also warned that reduced profits in 2013 could mean less tax revenue than Brown expects from his voter-approved tax hike on wealthy earners…

The full article is at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/28/5079415/fiscal-cliff-stumble-could-doom.html