[FoRK] Demonizing the hedge funds...

[Russell Turpin]

Jeff Bone:
> Just as there was a huge crowd of folks that voted for crypto-fascist 
> Bush on the theories that he was some kind of moderate and / or 
> actually good on self defense who woke up sometime in early 2005 and 
> said "what the fuck have we done?" --- there's going to be an equal 
> and opposite reaction on the part of those hoodwinked into supporting 
> crypto-socialist Obama should he be elected.

That's a fair concern. But let's keep in mind that these pendulums are
swinging in several different dimensions. The extreme to which Bush has
swung has little to do with economics. It is instead about the more 
cultural and procedural dimensions of government: transparency, warfare,
constitutional limits and process, and issues of that sort. By selling
us cheap taxes, the Republicans managed to turn this into a nation where
torture is now acceptable government policy. Not to mention running up
a huge debt that now must be serviced and paid down. 

My own view is that the economics pendulum is swinging in rather narrow
circles these days. Everyone except a few wacka-do leftos wants to keep
capitalism perking along. Even the Swedes have come to realize that 
that is a Very Important Thing, and that marginal tax rates start to 
gum the requisite incentives when they approach 50%. The current furor
is whether capital gains should be taxed at 15%, or at a somewhat higher
rate, but not as high as 28%. (Interesting historical note: it was Ford
who signed law that allowed capital gains rates as high as 40%, and 
Carter who signed law that capped them at 28%.)

You may be right. If the future President Obama pushes through law in
2009 that would tax capital gains as ordinary income, and I come into 
some large gains in 2010, I will be thoroughly pissed. Heck, I'll be 
pissed if the rate goes up to 27.5%. He said 28% was too high, and when 
talking taxes, that means more than a half percent. 
 
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