PDA

View Full Version : The market is afraid of Obama’s New, New Deal.



red states rule
10-31-2008, 05:19 AM
Libs have denied this, but it makes sense. How will Obamanomics actually help the economy?


snip

Taxes. Both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt imposed a slew of onerous tax increases precisely when the economy could least afford them. Hoover’s Revenue Act of 1932 raised the top marginal income tax rate from 25 percent to a whopping 63 percent and imposed new and increased excises taxes. FDR followed in Hoover’s footsteps and then some, raising taxes in 1934, 1935, and 1936. These included tax increases on personal income, corporate income, capital gains, estates, gifts, and corporation excess profits. Most debilitating was Roosevelt’s undistributed profits tax that squeezed capital out of businesses by taxing corporate savings. Obama has vowed to inflict much of the same damage. His war against prosperity includes increasing income taxes, taxes on capital gains and dividends, estate taxes, Social Security taxes, and windfall profit taxes.

Trade. On June 17, 1930, President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising import tariffs an average of 59 percent on more than 25,000 products and precipitating a trade war around the world. The stock market tanked and U.S. exports dropped precipitously.

Obama has learned nothing from Hoover’s folly. Not only has Obama opposed new free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea, he has insisted he will either renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA. Like Smoot-Hawley, these protectionist measures will result in huge economic losses for American businesses and consumers and likely retaliation from countries around the world.

Spending. One of the first things President Hoover did following the 1929 crash was convince local governments to increase government expenditures while he did the same at the federal level. FDR took this approach to new levels, launching a host of public works programs. These programs were credited with putting the unemployed to work, but they were funded with new taxes or borrowed money that drained sorely needed money from the private sector. Left in the private sector, this money would have been spent more efficiently and more productively than most of FDR’s government programs.

Unfortunately, Obama spending programs look equally ambitious. From universal healthcare to alternative energy boondoggles to a dubious $300 billion economic stimulus package, it is clear that a President Obama will significantly loosen the public purse strings. Money doesn’t grow on trees; the market knows that this money will come directly from the private sector’s pockets.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjZlYjE4OTRjMzZmY2IyNTFhYWFkYTZhMzVmM2NiMzk