Hillary's Tax Scheme Helped Spook Investors

Investors Business Daily ^ | 01/12/2016 | Editorial

[expat_panama]

Economics: To the many reasons for investor jitters and stocks' bad start we can probably add the dumbbell ideas coming from one of the leading presidential candidates.

In recent days and weeks, the Democratic nominee in waiting, Hillary Clinton, has said that she supports a 4% income-tax "surcharge" on millionaires, higher taxes on capital gains, "exit taxes" on corporations that move from the U.S. and other limits on investment and business that would have a devastating effect on capital markets and individual wealth.

Is it any wonder that markets are suffering from dyspepsia?

Clinton seems to think, along with others on the left, that merely seizing money from those who've earned it will make the economy bigger — and people better off.

It won't. What Hillary Clinton and others on the left miss is that the way to boost American output and increase high-paying U.S. jobs is to cut the corporate tax rate...

[snip]

Our corporate income tax rate is now 35%, in contrast to an average of about 25% for our major competitors. But here's the rub: Corporations don't pay the tax. We do. Think of it as a 35% tariff on what we make, while what we import is barely taxed at all.

[snip]

Meanwhile, her 4% surtax on millionaires...

[snip]

And by sharply raising the capital gains tax...

[snip]

Her class warfare attacks are further evidence...

...IRS data show that the top 1% she wants to sock with higher income and capital gains taxes pay almost 40% of income taxes now.

[snip]

...Obama has been sticking to businesses for seven years now, creating the worst recovery in half a century and more income inequality.

Whether called Obamanomics or Hillarynomics, it certainly won't make America great again.

[expat_panama]

Related thread:  State Of The Union: Are You Better Off Than You Were 7 Years Ago?

[Libloather]

merely seizing money

Take her ill-gotten booty.

[expat_panama]

Happy Mid-week morning!  While metals eased down to previous levels (gold, silver at $1,082.30, $13.88) stocks bounced back up a % to previous levels (in mixed trade).  Today's wisdom from the mountain top:

7:00 AM MBA Mortgage Index
7:00 AM MBA Mortgage Purchase Index
10:30 AM Crude Inventories
2:00 PM Fed's Beige Book
2:00 PM Treasury Budget
 

Elsewhere on the FR:

• Sell everything! 2016 will be a 'cataclysmic year,' warns RBS
• Bank Of America Just Laid Out Why Its Clients Are Wrong About The Bond Market
• State Of The Union: Are You Better Off Than You Were 7 Years Ago?
• Shipping Said to Have Ceased… Is the Worldwide Economy Grinding to a Halt?
• Supreme Court Seems Poised to Deal Unions a Major Setback

[major-pelham]

The road to Venezuela and a violent revolution. Rank stupidity, so she can say she won an election. A real statesman that Hillary I’ll tell ya.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Clinton really is a dolt.

[SES1066]

Please add me to list - looks like a good service! Thank you.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

[SomeCallMeTim]

The debacle in 2008 was preceded by a dramatic crash in oil prices and shipping rates.

This year, we’re seeing a dramatic crash in oil prices and shipping rates.... I’ve gotta admit: I’m pretty scared.

I’m already down 20-25% in all of my investment accounts. And, I don’t have the feeling that we’re near a bottom.

I feel exactly as I did in 2008: SCARED to the points of inaction. Afraid to sell, nothing to buy... nowhere to hide.

[griswold3]

October 2007, Charlie Rangle , chairman of the ways and means, proposed basically the same tax on the wealthy (Over $200,000- 4% over $500,000- 4.6%)
It’s been downhill since then.

[Night Hides Not]

What's your time frame? If it's more than 24 months, I'd suggest moving a portion of your funds into energy stocks/funds.

For example, Exxon now has a dividend near 4%, a good cash return until oil prices move back up, as we know they will.

I'm two years away from retirement, where I can roll my 401k into a self-directed account. I should be able to add $1,000 a month of income, from writing (covered) calls on stocks in my portfolio.

[expat_panama]

My pleasure; I found that I’ve needed to get this info anyway and doing the pinglist has been a good way to remind me to show up to work on time ;)

[Lady Heron]

What do these guys think Sanders will do to them if they want to support a democrat so badly?

[SomeCallMeTim]

I’m likely 5 years away from retirement.

My problem is: I aleady HAVE a portion of my portfolio in energy stocks/funds... :-( They have, um, “under-performed” thus far.

I work in the chemical business. I want to believe that oil prices will recover. One would think that they have to. But, I’m not so sure. This downtown in price is NOT just demand driven. It’s a combo of reduced demand AND over-supply. That’s a different animal.

It MAY be several years before prices recover. And, in that time... do alternative energy sources start making more of an impact? Does conservation continue to dampen demand increases while supply continues to increase?

It’s no sure bet... IMO. I posted on here a year ago that I calculated oil would HAVE to drop below $30 in get below the cash cost of production for enough producers to significantly affect supply. I wish I had paid more attention to my own calculation.

I have moved most of my individual stock holdings to good dividend payers. But even they have been getting beaten up.

[Night Hides Not]

I hear you, FRiend. I paid some hefty tuition last year with a fracking company.

Still, when I read that current consumption is 85 million bpd, and production is 97 million bpd, it won't take much for that difference to close. Storage capacity is near its limit.

It won't happen overnight. Drilling/fracking will resume as prices stabilize, and resume their upward path.

I've advised my older children to put some money every month into an energy fund, and dollar cost average while we're waiting for the supply imbalance to work itself out.