You forgot one: 6 - Raise taxes Bush Sr. raised taxes to help pay for his war, Bill Clinton in 1993 added another tax increase... and the economy responded with an incredible run of prosperity and growth. That proves we can afford to raise the top rate back to 38% to balance the budget and the economy will grow just fine in spite of the higher tax rates. A tax increase is the medicine no one wants to take but it is the cure for what ails the dollar -- currency markets need to see that the U.S. is on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Absoloutely. Need to raise taxes on the well to do, they are currently very low. This will help the middle class, which will help the whole country including the well to do. Unfortunately not many people get this. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/tax/article1996735.ece
WE are going to have horrendous inflation, regardless of the doctored official figures and in spite of the eventual recession. Give real estate more time to collapse, and stagflation a little time to heat up, and then i think buy hard assets like cheap real estate with borrowed money at fixed rates, as long as rates stay reasonably low, below the rate of real inflation. Pay off those loans as slowly as possible with funny money. Eventually the cost of of the money you borrowed will be negative. Lenders will be paying you to use their money. I already have one loan that falls in that category, and as long as rates stay down i'll borrow as much as i can get my hands on. Why use your own money when you can use someone else's money at no cost. Of course rates will have to rise at some point and end the party
I disagree: don't increase taxes on anyone! We need to lower taxes on the not so well to do. Anyone who wants to make a voluntary payment to the federal government to see how quickly and idiotically they can spend the money can do it just for fun. But for everyone else: lower taxes!
Because the falling dollar just isn't a big deal. The US and global economy is doing perfectly fine with the cheap dollar. Infact, the cheap dollar is beneficial for the US economy because it helps earnings. The dollar could fall another 20% without a negative impact.
Um, no.....not a good idea. This always seems like a great plan until you realize what the definition of "well-to-do" and "middle class" becomes after you implement it. Most people in their minds think "well-to-do" is somebody making >= $500,000 a year, and middle class extends from say $50,000 up to maybe $250,000/year. Unfortunately, according to government statistics the "middle class" only goes up to about $80,000/year maximum. Plus, most well-to-do people are not making massive money via W-2, but instead through some kind of corporate structure which is taxed differently and offers many loopholes to avoid any massive tax increases. So, if you try to "soak the rich" or tax all of these rich people by raising the top rate to 38%, what really happens is that most of them create some sort of tax shelter or are unaffected due to being tax-sheltered already. Then, the supposed revenue increase is not large enough, so you have to keep lowering down the income where the top bracket applies until eventually you are taxing the very people that can afford it least, those who are earning money through jobs (W-2) and living paycheck-to-paycheck. Consider that anyone living in a major metro area such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, etc. and wants to live in a half-decent house and/or send any kids to college is going to be negatively affected by this kind of plan in a major way. After all, $200,000/year in New York or Chicago is more like about $60,000/year in rural Iowa somewhere considering what it takes to maintain a decent lifestyle. Experiencing a 50% increase in taxes is not likely to create good results for these people.
I agree Frame. Loopholes, classifications as who is well to do, all screwed up by the government. But the fact is the really rich pay too little in taxes. I think the best solution would be to get rid of income tax altogether and just have a sales tax and low taxes on capital gains. Unfortunately there is about zero chance of this happening in our lifetimes.
The post saying the dollar declined 20% during the Clinton years was just wrong. The dollar actually strengthened about 20% during those fiscally responsible years.