Word: high
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Many scientists and businessmen blame the Government for the innovation recession. M.I.T.'s Gray complains that high taxes on capital gains and excessive Government regulation have discouraged new entrepreneurs. The 1969 increase in capital gains taxes from 25% to 49% dried up venture money, especially for small companies. From 1969 to 1975 the amount of new capital acquired annually by small firms sank from $1.5 billion to $15 million...
There are a few bright spots in the otherwise gloomy innovation picture. Last year's reduction in the capital gains tax from 49% to 28% resulted in a flood of new money looking for risky but promising investments. Boston's Route 128 complex of small, high-technology firms and California's Silicon Valley are awash with funds...
Most car owners fret about how to coax another year out of the heap in the driveway, but there are still customers aplenty for the expensive, high-precision toys known in the automotive trade as exotic cars. Most of the buyers are men in their early 40s who are lured by names like Aston Martin, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini that whisper freedom and promise sybaritic luxury. Oil-rich Arabs are big buyers: a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family this year paid $114,000 for two Lamborghini Countach-Ss lovingly built in Bologna. Sheiks and wealthy Japanese are queuing...
Still, there is an amber light flashing caution in the industry. Even with the substantial customer demand and profit margins that average from 8% to 10%, automakers fear that some of these high-strung dream cars may be speeding down the road to extinction. They will hardly be done in by soaring gas prices. A West German dentist earning more than $100,000 is unlikely to quibble over an extra 50c or so a gallon. And in fact the graceful sprinters with the impeccable pedigrees sip gas daintily, considering their performances: a Maserati Quattroporte gets 16 m.p.g...
...disappearance of the exotic car would hurt the development of automotive technology. Those sweet chariots pioneered, among other things, techniques for maintaining stability at high speeds, and were early users of radial tires and light-weight alloys that later became popular on mass-produced models...