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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Attack II - A Complete Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James F. Hopkins who wrote (19427)	9/20/2001 12:39:20 AM
From: Berney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52237

Captain, you know how much I appreciate your efforts in the investment area. Having wasted my time to get a MST (Masters degree in Taxation), and having spent about a quarter century doing battle in this arena, I tend to differ with you on the taxation issue. From my perspective, it is really simple -- tax consumption via a national sales tax. Thereby, if you spend it, you are taxed, if you save it, you are not. However, and I strongly disagree with Bush on this issue, it has to be accompanied by an absolute estate tax. In this view, if you spend it you are taxed, if you save it you are not taxed, but you cannot take it with you. As I've tried to explain to many of the depression children, there is a reason that hearses do not have luggage racks. Just a View from the Swamp Berney

To: James F. Hopkins who wrote (19427)	9/20/2001 8:51:21 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52237

Jim, your idea about an antispeculation TOBIN tax on big money swaps is in good company. A few years ago, investment guru Warren Buffett, who runs Berkshire Hathaway, said he thought it would be a good idea to tax capital gains from short term trades (less than 30 days) at a rate of about 99 percent to prevent speculation. And in the real estate area, many local jurisdictions impose an antispeculation tax on "flipping" or very short term trades designed to artificially boost the price of "hot" properties. So tell your brother that, as a practical matter (which is all that counts when one is trying to get a fair tax that works), you're heading in the right direction. Berney also had an interesting idea about a national sales tax, which I would modify only slightly. A sales tax is generally regressive, since lower income people spend a greater portion of their income on consumables than do higher income people. A sales tax also benefits indirectly the largest vertical conglomerates, since the tax is imposed only on the final sale, whether the consumer is an end user or another manufacturer buying component parts. A product containing many parts from outside suppliers would carry more tax than one made wholly within a single company. That's why in many European countries they use a value added tax, where the tax previously paid is deducted from the selling price, and the only tax that is eventually paid is on the final product, containing the "added value" of its components. Incidentally, the value added tax does not apply to exports from these countries, giving them a distinct competitive advantage over U.S. companies that are burdened by the corporate income tax. This is in itself an important issue, now that the World Trade Organization has found that the U.S. method of using artificial export sales organizations to circumvent national taxes amounts to an illegal subsidy. A value added tax is much better from a competition point of view than a corporate income tax, and is one more reason why the corporate tax should be dropped altogether, or at least dropped to a nominal one or two percent level. But let's face it. Tax issues are the most heavily lobbied of any issue that Congress faces. You can't get a decent tax reform as long as these huge lobbying organizations are helping those in Congress write the tax proposals (assuring that their pet tax relief schemes are given adequate hearing). You can't get rid of the lobbyists without also imposing campaign finance reforms. So in the end, the real issue is the one that Senator McCain has been plugging all along: Get rid of soft money and put limits on overall contributions. Art