Worried about the fiscal cliff, changing tax rates, global uncertainty? Take some advice from Charles Schwab and embrace the flux.

Schwab and two KKR & Co. execs held a panel on Wednesday night at the Schwab IMPACT conference in Chicago, giving the crowd the benefit of their views on the United States' approaching fiscal dilemma and how investors can benefit.

Be sure to check back with MFWire for reporter Tommy Fernandez's daily reports from the conference: here and here.

Reuters' writeup of the panel focused on Schwab's pessimistic comments on the fiscal cliff -- he said, "we have a very difficult time seeing a reasonable resolution by December 31." But he's not losing any sleep over the possibility of higher tax rates, and he said that if capital gains rates go up "life will go on, and a person like me will have to write a bigger check."

The RIABiz report from the panel focused more on the political shadings of Schwab's comments. Reporter Lisa Shidler writes that Schwab, a longtime donor to the Republican Party, "didn't come across as someone whose team had just lost," and that he did not seem the "fiercely partisan conservative" that he has seemed in his speeches at previous Schwab conferences. Behold the conciliatory approach:

"The opportunity to make money is there. I think we have to be careful not to be too depressed for the next few weeks," said Schwab. "We can live with this. I'm pretty optimistic."

KKR & Co. CEO George Roberts and Scott Nuttall joined Schwab in his reluctant embrace of populism -- even, in Nuttall's case, of political and economic chaos. Saying that a recession could be "interesting," Nuttall continued, "We're talking to our distressed team of analysts we call the 'grave dancers.' They're very excited about all this."

Roberts, a former "Barbarian at the Gate" whose firm is now launching two mutual funds and whose attendance at the conference shows how far he's come in courting the average investor, also sounded like recent convert to Heraclitus' way of thinking.

"When you are in a period of uncertainty, these are the best times to invest," he said.

For more coverage of the Schwab IMPACT conference, the Wall Street Journal is keeping a running diary. And, of course, MFWire's own Tommy Fernandez is on the ground in Chicago filing story upon story. 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


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