Posted on 02/18/2009 5:24:42 AM PST by reaganaut1
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(5) The easiest method to raise the money from Wall Street is a securities transfer tax, a tax that has a negligible impact on the average investor.
(6) This transfer tax would be on the sale and purchase of financial instruments such as stock, options, and futures. A quarter percent (0.25 percent) tax on financial transactions could raise approximately $150 billion a year.
(7) The United States had a transfer tax from 1914 to 1966. The Revenue Act of 1914 (Act of Oct. 22, 1914 (ch. 331, 38 Stat. 745)) levied a 0.2 percent tax on all sales or transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than doubled the tax to help overcome the budgetary challenges during the Great Depression.
(8) All revenue generated by this transfer tax should be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury of the United States, scaled to meet the net cost of these bailouts, and phase out when the cost of the bailouts are repaid.
(Excerpt) Read more at thomas.loc.gov ...
I used to work for a market-making firm and agree with you.
Obviously a market-maker is not going to make a market less than 0.50% wide if there is a 0.25% one-way transaction tax.
Hubby and I talked about taking what we have left in our market portfolio out and putting it somewhere we can at least maintain our equity.
Any ideas?
Stupid Idea. Great way to motivate investors to move their funds out of the US markets and into other global markets.
Inflation-linked Treasury bonds (TIPS) for tax-deferred accounts and and municipal bond funds for taxable ones.
this is just more evidence that the beltway has no clue about reality in the real world.
Never do anything based on emotion and never do a 100% switch to or from anything. What I suggest is selling small portions (e.g. 20%) on bounces, a little more on higher bounces. Redeploy some money into fixed investments and other money into liquid cash to buy back in when the market goes down. Sooner or later there will be another stock bubble and it will be good to have some investment in it. Personally I like tech (like Intel) and commodities (BP, CHK, etc). Also have some nursing home chains and other random stuff for diversity.
And most of them without a clue that they are part of Wall Street. I don't know where they think the stocks in their 401(k)s are traded, but they sure don't seem to know it's on Wall Street.
I have to wonder if the same was said about Federal Income Taxes before they were passed into law.
Midsummer, if not sooner. All you need is five 300-point drop days like yesterday (out of 80).
While interest rates will stay low for a while (forced by the Fed), I don’t think they will stay low forever. Once they start to rise, low interest rate bonds will fall in value. IMO, we are repeating the 70’s (except worse) and bonds were not a good investment in the 70’s.
PS The London, Tokyo and Hong Kong stock markets will thank you.
YEah - that will help the markets - tax transactions.
I really despise liberals.
Ultimately, all taxes, regardless of what they are called, are paid by the end user. This is true of corporate taxes because corporations don't have a magic pile of money from which to draw from to pay new taxes. When forced with increased tax rates, corporations raise the cost of the goods and or services they produce, thereby passing along the additional tax to the end user. This is also true for FICA, Capital Gains, income tax, and various embedded taxes. This sort of tax on the movement of capital is just as punishing as any of the other taxes you mention. The net result will be less people investing in stocks. That punishes everyone because everyone is a consumer of something in one form or another.
I seem to remember a 10% FDIC insured CD that I had in the 80's. From the late 70's. Of course those guys went to jail and the S&L was sold.... but I did OK for about 10 years. I asked if there were any more of those CD's when it came due and the guy laughed and said he wished.
I prefer the 100% insured ones :} The very late 70's (i.e. 79) and the early 80's were a good time to go fixed (CD's or bonds). We are just at the beginning of the cycle (i.e. late 60's). In 10 more years rates will shoot up, then anyone who has cash left will able to lock in at a good rate.
You can be sure they're thinking of that too, and it will be a lot more than 0.25%. More like 5 cents a round, which would be a 150% tax on .22 LR, and still more than 1% on match .50 cal rounds costing just under $5 each.
This proposed tax is a sure recipe to drive markets off-shore. It is a wonder any major corporation retains a state-side HQ .
Dow under 7500.
as if a 7500 DOW wasn’t bad enough...idiots.
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