Does Obama scare Wall Street?

[moonman]

No snakey32, I wasn't mocking you at all. IMO, the vast majority of investment advisers posses sophisticated minds and are adept at strategic thinking. I merely stated by contrast that I'm just a lowly licensed and bonded tax preparer.

As for some proof that Republicans seek to eliminate capital gains tax look no further than the Contract With America.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...7D&siteid=mktw

As to the capital gains being treated as ordinary income for tax purposes, should capital gains taxes be eliminated, I'm amazed that a so-called investment adviser fails to understand the definition of income for tax purposes, which is THE MOST rudimentary of all investment considerations; i.e. How is this investment treated for tax purposes?

[moonman]

No I wasn't mocking you snakey32. Eliminating the capital gains tax has long been a goal of the Republicans. It was stated so in the Contract With America and advocated by many Republicans since.

What surprises me though is that an investment adviser would not understand the most rudimentary of all tax law. Eliminating the capital gains tax doesn't mean eliminating the reporting requirement. Thus investment banks and brokers still report capital gains on transactions, the gain is then ordinary income and taxed at the higher rate.

I'm also surprised an investment adviser would advocate lowering the capital gains tax given our experience, especially in 2000 and 1929. Lowering capital gains rates only leads to wild speculation and there is absolutely no evidence that reducing capital gains rates spurs economic growth.

Correct if I'm wrong but aren't investment advisers generally prudent people who advocate at best measured and acceptable risk?

[Randy West]

I don't know if Obama scares wall street

I do know wall street is scaring the piss out of me right now

[sboyajian]

I don't know if Obama scares wall street

I do know wall street is scaring the piss out of me right now

as long as crude keeps dropping, wall street can do whatever the **** it wants right now.. they are talking about huge price drops in the pumps in the coming days.. ranging anywhere from 20 - 40 cents a gallon.. apparently since we've been "overpaying" and the drop is in concern to the price having an effect on economy, it's going to balance out with the actual per barrel cost.

Hopefully tomorrow yields another $5 drop.

[moonman]

I don't know if Obama scares wall street

I do know wall street is scaring the piss out of me right now

I was chatting with a friend yesterday who's net worth is well over two million and he never earned more than $15.00 an hour. In fact he was a custodian at his local school district. Ain't inflation amazin'? Well, my friend did better than the inflation rate. He showed real gains.

Anyway, as to your fear, he said, "Naw, I've seen it all before. In 2000 the market went down 50% and recovered. Same thing in 1987." He gave me a couple investment advisory letters and a recommendation.

[moonman]

as long as crude keeps dropping, wall street can do whatever the **** it wants right now.. they are talking about huge price drops in the pumps in the coming days.. ranging anywhere from 20 - 40 cents a gallon.. apparently since we've been "overpaying" and the drop is in concern to the price having an effect on economy, it's going to balance out with the actual per barrel cost.

Hopefully tomorrow yields another $5 drop.

ah yes, the old feather up, feather down scam. why is it when the price feathers down it never seems to hit the old lows but always sets new records when it feathers up?

[ari1013]

Raising taxes will slow our economy down, drop revenues and decrease total tax generated by the government. I don't have the exact stats, but total tax generated by the federal government under the Bush administration has increased due to his tax cuts and growth in our economy.

That's not exactly true. Tax revenue from corporations has increases along with their profits. That increase in tax revenue more than made up for the decrease in revenue from individual tax returns, but since those corporations were on pace for record profits anyway, it's very clear that tax receipts are actually lower now than they would have been had the tax cuts not happened.

In fact, the Bush Administration's projections for future tax revenues are made with a 100% repeal of his cuts after 2010. So the 2012 "Balanced Budget" requires a full move back to the Clinton-level of taxes.

As far as economic growth goes, there's a whole literature that disproves your point. Taxes are essentially irrelevant to economic growth. Interest rates are much more important.

[ari1013]

as long as crude keeps dropping, wall street can do whatever the **** it wants right now.. they are talking about huge price drops in the pumps in the coming days.. ranging anywhere from 20 - 40 cents a gallon.. apparently since we've been "overpaying" and the drop is in concern to the price having an effect on economy, it's going to balance out with the actual per barrel cost.

Hopefully tomorrow yields another $5 drop.

Oil's dropping because the dollar is climbing in value. The dollar has appreciated about 10% in the last two weeks. At the same time, oil consumption hasn't changed. Therefore the price of oil should decrease around 10% as well (a net drop of about $14-$15). That should correspond to about a 22 cent drop in gas prices at the pump.

[ari1013]

ah yes, the old feather up, feather down scam. why is it when the price feathers down it never seems to hit the old lows but always sets new records when it feathers up?

It's not a scam. When prices go up over time it's because demand grows over time along with global population.

[Drucifer]

They panic when anything changes, so yeah they are scare of Obama, who's biggest slogan has called for change.

[sboyajian]

Oil's dropping because the dollar is climbing in value. The dollar has appreciated about 10% in the last two weeks. At the same time, oil consumption hasn't changed. Therefore the price of oil should decrease around 10% as well (a net drop of about $14-$15). That should correspond to about a 22 cent drop in gas prices at the pump.

It has already dropped $16 in the last 3 days. I say it drops another 3 - 4 tomorrow.. I know you like to hold the value of oil and the dollar as mutually exclusive, but like it or not, there are other factors. Concerns of price also can affect things.. otherwise everything would rise and drop at the price of the dollar, and there would be no need for the market at all. It would just be assumed and known that as the dollar goes up 10%, everything else drops 10%.

[snakey32]

Dunno.. I work for one of the largest advisory firms .. granted I'm in IT.. but I don't see a lot of frantic people over it.

That's because he hasn't been elected yet. If he is, I will definatley make quick work in coming up with a plan to have clients take capital gains on their non-qualified accounts.

No snakey32, I wasn't mocking you at all. IMO, the vast majority of investment advisers posses sophisticated minds and are adept at strategic thinking. I merely stated by contrast that I'm just a lowly licensed and bonded tax preparer.

As for some proof that Republicans seek to eliminate capital gains tax look no further than the Contract With America.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...7D&siteid=mktw

As to the capital gains being treated as ordinary income for tax purposes, should capital gains taxes be eliminated, I'm amazed that a so-called investment adviser fails to understand the definition of income for tax purposes, which is THE MOST rudimentary of all investment considerations; i.e. How is this investment treated for tax purposes?

No I wasn't mocking you snakey32. Eliminating the capital gains tax has long been a goal of the Republicans. It was stated so in the Contract With America and advocated by many Republicans since.

What surprises me though is that an investment adviser would not understand the most rudimentary of all tax law. Eliminating the capital gains tax doesn't mean eliminating the reporting requirement. Thus investment banks and brokers still report capital gains on transactions, the gain is then ordinary income and taxed at the higher rate.

I'm also surprised an investment adviser would advocate lowering the capital gains tax given our experience, especially in 2000 and 1929. Lowering capital gains rates only leads to wild speculation and there is absolutely no evidence that reducing capital gains rates spurs economic growth.

Correct if I'm wrong but aren't investment advisers generally prudent people who advocate at best measured and acceptable risk?

That's quite a forked tongue you have. And yes, you are quite wrong in many ways. May I make a suggestion though? Please re-read your left-wing, editorial from 2003 so that you can abosrb the meaning behind it. It blasts the GOP for wanting to eliminate capital gains taxes all together because there would no longer be tax dollars generated.

The economic impact of cutting the tax is minimal because people are basically going to swap assets," Murphy said. "As people unlock capital gains, you could actually push stock prices downward."

The bait-and-switch might ultimately be far more sinister. After winning a capital-gains tax cut with the reduction in dividend taxes to 15 percent, the White House may well come back and argue that any dividend taxes are still unfair. In the end, it could win elimination of dividend taxes and a sharp cut in capital gains without any debate.

Maybe next time you should be less abrasive. It makes you look like less of a jerk when it turns out you make false assumptions in reading the article you referenced. The entire article you quoted bashes the GOP for wanting to lower taxes. I think it's a much safer assumption that there would no longer be reporting required on investment accounts for tax purposes, rather than the GOP has been attempting to lower capital gains taxes in order to jack them up to ordinary income rates.

I know you're just a lowly tax preparer, but you need to work on your reading comprehension. Thanks for playing.

[ari1013]

It has already dropped $16 in the last 3 days. I say it drops another 3 - 4 tomorrow.. I know you like to hold the value of oil and the dollar as mutually exclusive, but like it or not, there are other factors. Concerns of price also can affect things.. otherwise everything would rise and drop at the price of the dollar, and there would be no need for the market at all. It would just be assumed and known that as the dollar goes up 10%, everything else drops 10%.

I doubt it falls more than it has. But we'll see.

How have gas prices near you changed in the last week?

[snakey32]

I doubt it falls more than it has. But we'll see.

How have gas prices near you changed in the last week?

They haven't fallen here as much as the price of oil has, It's funny though... when oil is going up they seem to adjust their gas prices quickly.

[sboyajian]

I doubt it falls more than it has. But we'll see.

How have gas prices near you changed in the last week?

They haven't.. because as we've discussed before, the price at the pump is speculated based on risk.

Monday they buy oil at 130 a barrel
Tuesday oil goes to 140.
Wednesday you pay more for the oil they bought Monday.

But if it drops per barrel.. you won't see it for a week.. just a way they can gouge us.. fast to rise, slow to fall. Unless oil takes a massive leap up today, we should see a drop by Sunday or Monday.