(10-05-2021 07:18 AM)MerseyOwl Wrote:  

(10-04-2021 07:47 PM)flash3200 Wrote:  

(10-04-2021 05:39 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Cuban on Taxes

"It’s a great political move for her[Warren], but I just don’t think that they really understand the implications of taxing unrealized gains," he continued. "People are going to have to sell things they otherwise would not sell. People are not going to make the same investments."

Warren’s plan to tax the net worth of the wealthiest Americans could reduce U.S. economic growth by 1.2% over the next 30 years, according to an analysis published earlier this year.

The so-called "ultra-millionaire tax" would slash the country's gross domestic product -- the market value of all the goods and services produced within the U.S. -- by 0.6% in 2031 and 0.8% in 2040, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis. The tax would also have a detrimental effect on wages, reducing the hourly rate by 0.7% in 20313, 1% in 2040 and 1.2% in 2050, the model shows.

How do you tax unrealized gains on highly illiquid assets like real estate, collectibles, and closely held private corporations or partnerships? Are they going to keep the $3k rule (for joint filers) of deducting losses in the case you pay all your taxes up to a market top then watch everything go down 50% during a correction? So many issues with this.

I agree it's completely impractical to try to tax unrealized gains. So why did the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) allow the creation of Mark-to-Market accounting? M-t-M lead to the Enron debacle and probably the 2008 financial crisis (through the valuation and inflated 'prices' of CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) that were traded among the perpetrators). The valuation of assets is easily manipulated by sham sales or undervaluation by paid 'experts'. It would however completely reinvigorate the accountancy profession by creating the absolute need for annual audited personal financial statements. The information reflected in these statements would be that provided by the individuals themselves. The accountants would have signed client representation letters and paid up professional liability insurance policies for their protection.
What could go wrong?

(10-04-2021 07:47 PM)flash3200 Wrote:  There is an issue of the budget deficit, but I have a feeling that if people were forced to pay for all of this crap (foreign wars, bailouts of businesses owned by ultra rich, UBI), our spending bills would be a lot smaller. The real problem is the profligate spending and the current mantra of 99.99% of the people in this country that think government spend is as simple as picking money off of the money tree out in the back 40. Republicans are worse than democrats in that regard.

Well the start would be smaller government, rein in and where possible eliminate entitlement programs, and the reduction of federal regulations. I would also fire the majority or possibly the totality of government economists. Virtually all of these are Keynesians who believe the first and only port of call is government intervention. And the only assured result of government intervention is more government intervention. Keynesians also see no problem with creating budget deficits in the short term and in the long term their justification is "it doesn't matter because we'll all be dead anyway." The idiot in charge of Obiden's Treasury, Janet Yellen (New Keynesian School of Economics), is advocating for the permanent elimination of the debt ceiling.
Complete effing hubris.

New Keynesian economics (Wikipedia)
"New Keynesians argue that macroeconomic stabilization by the government (using fiscal policy) and the central bank (using monetary policy) can lead to a more efficient macroeconomic outcome than a laissez faire policy would."
Again, complete effing hubris.

and of course, the Democrats not only think this should be done, but that it is of the utmost urgency that it be done NOW at any cost and without regard to feasibility.

I understand the allure of putting a chicken in every pot, especially when one runs on the images of starving children, but why a chicken in every pot at any cost now!