Word: marketing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There is nothing magical or unique about capital gains. A special break for this particular form of investment profit distorts the free market in two ways. First, it prejudices the economy in favor of certain kinds of investment. Those who say we need to encourage entrepreneurs or long-term investors with this break (which actually would reserve few of its benefits for those charmed circles) are saying the Government can outguess the market about which investments will pay off. If a risky or long-term investment makes more sense than keeping money in a savings account, the market will reward...
Although they are now ostensibly taxed at the same rate as other income, capital gains already get favored treatment in two ways. First, they are only taxed when an investment is sold, unlike interest and dividends, which are taxed every year. An ideal free-market tax system would leave an investor indifferent between, say, a savings account paying 10% a year and a stock expected to rise 10% a year. But tax-free compounding means that, for a top- bracket taxpayer the after-tax profit on the stock will be 45% bigger after 20 years...
...ignores inflation. If a stock has doubled during a time when the general price level has also doubled, the real profit is zero, but you'll pay a capital- gains tax anyway when you sell. Of course, the same is true of interest -- an 8% return on a money-market fund at a time of 5% inflation is really only 3% -- but no one is proposing to do anything about that. Furthermore, no one is proposing to limit the deduction for interest paid. In a world with no taxes, it would not make sense to borrow...
From a free-market perspective, then, there is no justification for a special tax break for capital gains. If advocates of a capital-gains break wish to concede that they are socialists engaged in large-scale Government intervention in the economy, we can start again from the top on that basis. Of course, if we're talking socialism, it will be a lot harder to avoid the fairness issue...
With their profits squeezed, both Ford and General Motors are eager to strengthen their positions in the moneymaking high end of the luxury-car business. The automakers have fixed their gaze on Britain's Jaguar as the car of choice in the upscale market. Last week Ford declared that it may bid to buy Jaguar when the British government's restrictions on individual stakes in the firm expire at the end of next year. Ford currently controls 13% of Jaguar's stock...