OT OT Sidebar:
Is the special rate for investments held for 5 YEARS or more a stupid idea or what? Can anyone explain to me the rhyme or reason for that, with a straight face?
A company raises investment money in the capital markets, and for simplicity sake, let's just have one purchaser, A, investing $10,000 in Company X. Three years later, A wants to sell his investment to B for $25,000, but no, if he holds onto it for another two years he's going to get a better tax rate.
What?
Meanwhile, the capital markets, which means X's ability to raise funds, are not helped by this scheme (which would seem to reduce liquidity) nor is the individual investor who when selling must make a much more complicated decision concerning the risks/rewards of holding for a further period. And the buyer isn't helped because, duh, the market is less liquid. What is the purpose of this caca?
I don't know, maybe it makes sense in a way I just can't fathom (the one year cap gains period makes no sense, either, for that matter). Is there something somehow holier about investments made for the "long term"? (remember how that silly concept first sedated then vivisected those intrepid investors from the Isles of Nippon in the go-go 1980s!).
Otherwise, I'm just watching my stocks go up,
Kb |
