“It’s way past time we put an end to the era of shareholder capitalism.” — President Joe Biden, July 9, 2020
Does $9 million Joe Biden invest in even one share of any publicly traded company?
If not, how can he understand markets let alone their importance to the dreams of more than 180 million Americans?
Did Joe Biden just declare a $6 trillion war on the 55 percent of Americans, who invest in shares and/or stock-based mutual funds?
Considering that more than one-half of all Americans of all income and wealth levels invest in their futures by means of buying shares or stock-based mutual funds, shouldn’t we be concerned when the leader of the free world wants to end shareholder capitalism?
Sounds like the punitive redistribution playbook devised by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. And Biden is a moderate? Right CNN?
Biden The Moderate wants to hike of the corporate tax from 21-28 percent and has proposed the near doubling of the federal capital gains taxes from 23 percent to 44 percent. Oh, the latter only applies to those making more than $1 million. What will be the cumulative impact of these two initial punitive redistributive tax increases on every investor large or small? FUD.
That is Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Wall Street investors detest and loathe FUD.
Surely these increased revenues will be used to pay down the nation’s record $28.23 trillion cumulative debt or $84,785 per every American woman, man and child? This staggering amount is an unprecedented 127.7 percent of the nation’s world-leading $22.10 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It’s the country’s fourth largest expenditure at $398 billion.
The answer is not a penny.
What does the Bidenesque end of shareholder capitalism mean for public employees and state teachers and their pension funds? How about seniors nursing their nest IRA eggs? What about parents investing in their 401k’s for their children’s education? What about Millennials becoming retail investors for the first time via Robinhood and other trading platforms?
Ever hear of Charles Schwab, Joe? Tax him too.
Keep in mind $1 million is a lot of money, but note what it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago before inflation.
Under the Biden plan a seven-figure California-based overachiever would be confronted with a 39.6 percent federal capital gains tax, a 13.3 percent state capital gains tax, and a 3.8 percent Obamacare investment income tax or a cumulative 56.7 percent levy on any gain coming from the investing of discretionary funds.
Ready to invest even more, when governments take nearly 60 percent? A Californian could reduce this amount by 13.3 percent by moving to Texas, Washington or Nevada. Oh — they are already doing that.
What about the impact on investors and the economy of the 28 percent corporate tax?
Will companies once again ex-patriate their overseas gains? Yes as they have before.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is asking her foreign colleagues to pass a corporate minimum tax. Reminds Almost DailyBrett of a doctor prescribing a second pill to counteract the side effects of the first pill.
The Joys Of Other People’s Money
“Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich. We did that. God forbid the rich leave.” — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) projected 1 million job losses based on the Biden Tax Plan.
And what about the impact of rising taxes and escalating federal spending? Will a return of 18 percent Jimmy Carteresque inflation be in the offing?
And don’t you know that soaking the rich ends up with a corresponding dynamic response? Cuomo lamented about New Yorkers moving to zero state income tax Florida. Heck, even the Rolling Stones left the 98 percent effective tax rate Britain — not a typo — for France in the early 1970s.
Should we be concerned about raising taxes and exploding spending? It just seems so easy because it is. As Almost DailyBrett has concluded before, it takes zero brains to raise a tax.
And don’t we all know, it will never be enough. The government will have reach down lower into income levels to find even more money it wants to spend.
As Winston said: “It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/04/29/how-to-tax-capital-without-hurting-investment
https://www.nam.org/tax-increases-would-cost-a-million-jobs-13370/
https://www.realized1031.com/capital-gains-tax-rate
(Almost) DailyBrett 