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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KyrosL who wrote (20607)	5/28/2009 12:17:50 PM
From: philv	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71475

Lots of tax catch up in the US for sure, but what will that do for the economy. What will that do to the available cash and spending power? Does anyone think taxes are good for economic revival?

To: KyrosL who wrote (20607)	5/28/2009 3:58:18 PM
From: axial	Respond to of 71475

Exactly right... with the exception of forecast entitlement program costs, the US was acting prudently until ~ Y2K. After which, a whole lot of financial razzle-dazzle permeated thinking in the Washington-Wall Street corridor, including cessation of pay-as-you-go. en.wikipedia.org It is said that higher taxes will be counterproductive to the economy. True! Reality check: what's the alternative? Continued borrowing, and a USD run? If US taxation attains the same level as competing economies, then all it means is that the US is (at last) on equal footing: not at a disadvantage, equal. How bad is that? Meanwhile (in combination with other actions) accumulated debt is slowly being paid off, deficits are eliminated, and international confidence is being restored. Compare that to the alternatives. Yes, there will be a price - but the US cannot continue to have it both ways. The world won't support it, and the US won't be able to pay for the outcome. The party's over, the damage is done, and now it's time for cleanup. The world waits and the clock is ticking. What will save the US is a visible commitment to responsible and prudent behaviour. Jim

To: KyrosL who wrote (20607)	5/28/2009 11:05:25 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71475

The VAT (GST) in Canada was a huge enabler for the Liberals in Canada to get the federal books in order.. Of course they got elected by promising to cancel it (The Conservatives brought it in) LOL... but that's another story.. The other thing that the Liberals did was to cut entitlements deeply by drastically cutting off federal funding to the provinces. They collected taxes but slowed the distribution in favour of the deficit and later debt reduction as the economy improved... The provinces were on their own to deal with the cuts.. Doesn't seem to be the path the US is on.. By the way here we are again in a recession... and Canadians really never got back much lots of what was taken away ... It's truly a long term project... TBS

To: KyrosL who wrote (20607)	5/30/2009 2:40:17 PM
From: Sam	2 Recommendations Respond to of 71475

You are forgetting that the US still remains one of the most lightly taxed developed countries. Try telling that to the some of the most vocal masters of the Republican Party and the Club of Growth Libertarians. They are always complaining about how "over-taxed" the US is, how burdensome, how anti-business our tax rates are. These are the same conservatives who were so horrified at the prospect back in 2001 of actually paying off the national debt and running surpluses--which of course weren't surpluses at all if all of the unfunded SS, Medicare and pension liabilities were counted in accordance with GASB accounting principles, but nevermind that. That was just a legal nicety; out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, all right.