Ain’t it just like Wall Street (and its official house organ, The Wall Street Journal) to get all lathered up over supposed tax reforms that have little more substance to them than the usual, stinking heap of manure we’ve come to expect from Congress? I made a similar point recently in discussing some fine print in the tax bill that would retain the alternative minimum tax for corporations. It were as though the Magna Carta had featured a provision to draw and quarter anyone caught stealing a loaf of bread. So what else is in the fine print? On Tuesday we learned about a provision that would deny equity investors the ability to choose which shares they sell to reduce a position. In the future, if the Senate has its way, any shares sold will be reckoned for tax purposes on a first-in, first-out basis. This is guaranteed to raise one’s tax bill if the shares have been rising. The proposed change is certain to stimulate significant year-end selling ahead of the new law.
Business as Usual on the Hill
And here’s the kicker: If we needed further proof that we are represented solely by jackasses on Capitol Hill, it is this: The FIFO measure would raise a paltry $2.4 billion over the next ten years. And that’s assuming taxpayers do nothing to end-run the levy. Adds the Journal, “Some money managers and analysts say there has been so little discussion of the [change] that investors may be surprised to learn that [it] could reduce — or even wipe out — what they would save from an income tax reduction.” In the meantime, the spectacle of the stock market climbing vertically in anticipation of all the wonderful things the tax bill supposedly will do for the economy would be a joke if it weren’t going to prove so costly for so many. When Congress promises “tax cuts for the middle class,” we should skip the celebration and grab our wallets.
You just cannot have tax cuts, once when a town only had 15-20 police officers, and a reasonable number of town employees and such etc., but after 30-40 years these numbers along with the over all population have grown some 4 or 5 times in personnel.
It’s basic and pure the money must come from somewhere and with the last 20 years of outsourcing ‘giant sucking sound’ and lowering of wages the production of America is limited like it had never been before.
The important thing to observe is that the talk continues suggesting that the governing party for cutting taxes does not want to clearly see the undercurrent. It’s never been the federal government, as most suggest, all things start from the bottom — it’s your municipalities and state levels that are the cause.
Imply ‘We The People’ is out of sort as to what can be expected as a citizen financially, getting a several Ring Master in place is important to keep the show alive.
Society has just move towards an extreme, Hollywood and the entire Entertainment industry is a massive ‘illegal money laundering’ process. Have you taken note of all the ‘holding companies’ prior to the movie show, some times as many as 5 are in the credits. That goes unchecked because of the vanity in all of us, and as it continues more is just not enough.
Taking note that only 3 movies a year each year really makes a profit while not hundreds but thousands are created is reason to observe such an illegal process is in place but the vanity in us all keeps the many from even suggesting it. The word profit itself has become just a screenplay gone badly wrong, which money lost is just to wash and clean it.
This is where the parties of government are in a place of great vanity enhancing all our society to think the same will be the continuing trend in place.
All trends continue until the masses simply lose faith.
The Brady Turn Date in place.
Have a great day Rick.