http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/buffett-rattner-the-rich-dont-need-handouts/Content?oid=2551762 Comments On: Buffett, Rattner: The rich don't need handouts by Ernest Dumas en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Wed, 22 May 2013 21:00:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
But, I digress. I mean no disrespect towards Tom Pope. He raised some valid points without once mentioning the term "trickle down". Warren Buffett probably knows a thing or two about economics too. I'm going with him for now and hope to not have to repeat it umpteen times.
Posted by Olphart]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:21:22 -0600 Arkansas Times
Economies who use government spending and high taxes to drive GNP must have an extra advantage such as China's currency manipulation or oil wealth or high quality manufacturing. When no advantage exists these countries are perpetually in recession becoming poorer and poorer as others pass them by. Taxes are so high in Sweden people cannot go out for lunch - it's not affordable to the average person and everyone brown-bags. Sure, they have benefits but they don't enjoy the fruits of their labor as people do in nations with modest tax rates.

As I told Dumas who never listens, you have to rely on more than just tax policy to arrive at an accurate analysis of economic performance - include historical events and economic trends as well. But since you mentioned Scandinavia, they have in fact been reducing taxes which is helping them some with a modest GNP growth in this recession, a lesson that Germany learned in the 1990s after Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder cut taxes followed by Canada. The list goes on....
Posted by Thomas Pope]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:46:36 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:29:09 -0600 Arkansas Times
For the umpteenth time: The capital gains tax rate in 1997 was reduced 8 points in an agreement between Newt Gingrich, Pete Dominiche and Bill Clinton. That's when the economy boomed, in fact over heated and fell into recession during the early years of the Bush administration. In Clinton's first term, the economy was being driven by a brand new technology sector coming on line in the form of the desktop computer, cell phone and internet with little to no foreign competition. Focusing only on tax policy is a very poor method to use when analyzing economic performance.

"Buffett said that between 1951 and 1954 when the capital gains tax rate was 25 percent (now it's 15 percent) he sold securities and did well. From 1956 to 1969, when the top marginal rate on income was 70 percent (it is now half that), he was accumulating a fortune as a fund manager and never once had anyone mention taxes as a reason to forgo an investment he offered."

"History should have settled the questions long ago. High marginal tax rates never deterred investment and low ones never stimulated it. That is the record nationally, and it is also the invariable story in Arkansas."

For the umpteenth time: That was an era known as the National Industrial Model, better described as regional economies. There was very little international competition in that time period but also Germany and Japan were not competing because they were destroyed in WWII. The top marginal tax rate was 90% but the effective rate after deductions during the 1950s was 50% being gradually lowered to 27% by the time of the Kennedy administration. The economy in the 1960s boomed after the JFK tax cut, the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts as well. Check the Labor Department data, if you dare! The evidence abounds but you can't make an ideologue see anything other than their fixed ideas, no matter how much you present them with.

The Democrats have been saying the US should be more like Europe. If any nation tries to use taxation and government spending to propel GNP in the era of globalization they'd become insolvent very quickly. Examples of failed nations trying to use taxation and government stimulus to drive their economies are Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and France and Japan. All of these nations are presently either in a depression with unemployment over 25% or in a severe recession. The Eurozone unemployment rate is currently above 10%. Japan's unemployment is low but their GNP growth is very slow. Oddly enough the liberals worship NY Times economic guru, Paul Krugman who advised Jose Zapatero, PM of Spain on these methods which currently has the most depressed economy in the Eurozone!

Obama's Keynesian economic policies such as the 890 billion borrowed and spent stimulus package which has been made permanent by his insistence on higher government spending is the reason the US is still stuck in recession. If not for 3 rounds of Quantitative Easing by the Federal Reserve Bank the US would already be back in recession with a considerably higher unemployment rate and deficit.

For the umpteenth time: When an economy is in recession there has to be an infusion of cash into the private sector as a stimulus - that was the purpose of the Obama stimulus package which failed to regenerate a self sustaining economy. Obama's stimulus was capable of producing a post recession quarter of only 5%, not the 7% necessary to cause a recovery. It is irrelevant how high or low business tax rates are at that time. If tax rates were zero there would have to be a negative tax rate to put cash into the hands of businesses and consumers to cause a psychological stimulus in peoples minds and fiscal stimulus in the economy. That's where the power comes from - not the tepid, unexciting government spending that passes largess to constituents and states. A good maxim is, government cannot run an economy and it cannot generate a recovery! That's why we're still stuck in recession, waiting on another recession, just like the Eurozone!
Posted by Thomas Pope]]> Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:14:31 -0600 Arkansas Times