Patrick Moore3 said:This whole "tax the rich" thing... We all know it's just pure demagoguery. Total nonsense.
Like what? Rich people just stash cash under their mattresses!? That capital is always being invested somewhere, and society always gets a slice of the action... They spend it on dinner, and suddenly restaurants and their suppliers get a boost, and that cash flows right back into the economy... They put it in funds, those funds invest it... they park it in a bank, and the bank lends it out through loans!
The people running today's welfare states really think they can manage money better than the people who actually earned it... Given the current deficit levels, anyone can see how they're handling things.
By hiking taxes even more, money velocity is just going to tank (M2 is at an all-time low, M1 is looking like it's stuck in the late 70s or mid-90s)... There'll be less liquid cash available, and the people who do have it will just keep lending it to the government... We're looking at another deflationary year... and regardless of the fiscal cliff situation, the world is heading for another recession. Whether basic prices spike in that scenario depends entirely on oil, taxes, and the dollar!
The Federal Reserve printing presses slowed down a bit after four weeks of work, and the Fed decided to shed some assets... All in all, despite all the hype about Quantitative Easing's impact, the balance sheet is still lower than it was in February...
In 2013, the S&P 500 won't see any massive rallies unless there's a tectonic shift in Federal Reserve policy (and considering Ben's term is winding down, I'm not holding my breath)... I don't see a major crash happening either, because there just isn't much reason for one... Most likely, everything stays within the 2012 ranges, maybe +/- 10%... Not bad, considering the uncertainty...
Spot on. You aren't screwing over the rich. And who's actually doing the screwing? Corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest politicians. Take real estate, for example. How many people in the US actually know about 1031 exchanges?
As for the Fed's balance sheet, I'm staying out of that one. 🙂
Honestly, I also think gold has already left the atmosphere past $2000. Silver is going to go even higher.
What I really don't get, though, since both of them are essentially money... 😂