Political Irony

[This is an excerpt from a post in Fred Wickham’s Bullseye Rooster. Dan is Fred’s brother, and Buzz is his business partner in a small business. I totally agree with this idea.]

Two years ago, Dan and Buzz were heartened by the election of Obama. Aside from all the marvelous change he would be bringing to America and the world, he promised to help small business. So it was a little bit odd when he put all the big bankers into the business policy jobs. It turned out to be worse than just odd, it’s worse than nothing. No small business loans. No small business investment strategy at all. The large corporations are getting fatter and fatter, owning more and more, and actually buying out small businesses for a song. The inventors and entrepreneurs have been sucking hind tit. All the while, the stock market is going great. But jobs are not being created. It’s all about trading now.

Paper trading — actually not even paper. Traders are scoring big with trades that last only a microsecond. A sufficiently well-heeled investor can buy and sell the same stock in less than a second and, through some sleight of rational thought, become a good deal richer. All in the time it takes to cough in the face of his intern.

I asked my brother if, as a small businessman, he could have any wish, what would it be?

“Get rid of the stock market,” he said. I gave him a get real look, then he continued. “Get rid of the trading system as it is currently structured. These bastards are trading lickety-split, but there’s no incentive for them to hold onto their investments. The stock hiccups, they take their profit and bail. The point of the market, old-fashioned as it may sound, is to capitalize a venture that you see as a viable addition to the economy. The designer, the workers, the sales staffs, the entrepreneurs and, yes, even the consumer — these are the people who must benefit to have a market that inspires production.”

With that, Dan outlined his cure. Those who buy and sell stocks in a micro-second, should pay a 99% capital gains tax on their (excuse me while I clear my throat) earnings. Yes, outrageously confiscatory in order to stop this outrageous practice. A day trade, 90%. Sure it’ll piss off the day traders on their laptops, but it should open up a few tables at Peets when these guys get off their asses and find something productive to do. Hold on to your stock for a week, 70%. A month, 60%. Year, 50%. Two years, 35%. Five years, 10%. Ten years or more, zero percent capital gains taxes.

Certainly, this scheme would trigger outrage. The rich don’t even like to pay taxes on their Grey Poupon. But that’s the point. Propose it as it is. Let them scream. Wake the public up to what it is that investment is supposed to do for the economy, for the honest businessman, for the job-seeker.

I said, what would you call this? “Well, it’s based on an asymptotic curve — might as well call it asymptotic trading.”

Sounds good to me. Dan Wickham’s Asymptotic Trading. DWAT.

Today is Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday (they will even start the Super Bowl with a video tribute to the Gipper), so it is fitting to look back on his legacy.

Is Reagan a true American hero, or was he simply the first actor to play the role of President in real life? I’m not sure, actually. But I do know that any acting he was doing in the White House has been far eclipsed by the fiction that has been spun around his presidency by conservatives.

Perhaps the biggest example of this is the cargo cult that fervently believes that cutting taxes is the best (and perhaps only) way to economic growth. These people think of Reagan as the saint of tax cuts. And it is true that in his first year as president, Reagan cut the marginal tax rate for the rich from 70% to 28%. But what they ignore is that Reagan’s big tax cut was a disaster.

Perhaps it is a credit to Reagan that he realized this, and he raised taxes every year after his first year. In fact, the man who edited Reagan’s memoirs says:

Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes. … And so there’s a false mythology out there about Reagan as this conservative president who came in and just cut taxes and trimmed federal spending in a dramatic way. It didn’t happen that way. It’s false.

Unfortunately, his biggest tax increase was to the payroll tax, so in effect he replaced a progressive tax with a regressive tax, shifting much of the tax burden from the rich to the not-rich. And even Reagan’s budget director, the same man that orchestrated Reagan’s huge tax cut, says that tax cuts are not working, and that we should raise taxes.

And yet, conservatives and Republicans still believe that Reagan never raised taxes. Worse, they claim that we can solve our budget deficit problems and help the economy by cutting taxes even more, although there is plenty of evidence of the opposite.

So on this day of remembrance for Reagan, if you are cornered by a conservative complaining about deficits and the size of government, remind them about how Reagan increased our deficit by $3 trillion and increased the size of government dramatically. Or if they start complaining about illegal aliens, remind them that Reagan gave amnesty to three million undocumented workers. Or if they talk about fighting a war with Iran, remind them that Reagan secretly sold arms to Iran despite an arms embargo against them, and used the proceeds to fund death squads in Nicaragua, which Congress had outlawed. Or if they try to pretend they are not racist, remind them of how Reagan vetoed sanctions against apartheid South Africa, asserting that they would not work. Or if they claim that only Republicans can prevent terrorism, remind them that Reagan helped create and fund the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

If you are truly interested in Reagan’s legacy, read this excellent article in CBS news about Reagan, including both the prevalent myths and the reality. Or if that is too much trouble, here’s a cartoon:

© Kirk Anderson

UPDATE: If you are concerned about corruption in government, Reagan’s administration was one of the most corrupt in history with a total of 138 Reagan officials convicted, indicted, or named in investigations of official misconduct or criminal acts. Here is a list of all the people in the Reagan administration who were convicted of serious crimes directly related to their jobs — there are 21 of them, compared to eight for Nixon (who was forced out of office) and only one for Clinton (who was not).

[I’m reprinting this from Margaret and Helen. There is a followup posting there that you should read as well. – iron knee]

I told you, Margaret. It’s only just beginning.

Texas Governor Rick Perry said he will introduce emergency legislation requiring women seeking abortions to first get a sonogram of the fetus and listen to a recording of the heartbeat.

Why? Well when someone has all the information, according to Perry, “the right choice will be made — the choice for life.”

I find it funny how universal healthcare is big government gone bad, but somehow the government crawling up my uterus and telling me what choice to make isn’t. Odd how giving patients information about end of life options is a “death squad for Grandma” but sonograms before abortions are simply souvenirs for the family photo album.

Rick Perry is a jackass. Period.

Did it ever occur to you Governor Jackass that some of those women who you plan to force to have a sonogram and listen for a heartbeat are young girls who have been abused… young women who are devastated that a wanted pregnancy has gone bad… poor women who just can’t afford to feed another mouth… scared women who have been raped… and even regular ‘ole women who made peace with their God and don’t need to hear from yours?

Governor, please take your big hair to church as often as you like. Get down on your knees and pray to your God everyday. Join the choir and sing his praises until the cows come home. Get it all out of your system so that when you walk into that Capitol building you are a little less inclined to blur the line between religion and politics and force your narrow-minded, black and white version of right and wrong on millions of people who just maybe – maybe – don’t agree with you and your backward ass group of right-wing zealots.

2,700,000 Texans voted for you. 2,100,000 Texans voted for the other guy. So many important problems to be solved and you decide to divide us even deeper.

Jackass.

Tomorrow I will make a donation to Planned Parenthood. I mean it. Really.