Monday, July 2, 2012

Been doing some Reading!

The first forty years after WW 2 the financial sector was 10% of GDP and 12% to 15% of corporate profits. Bankers were paid a little more than average workers. 2006 financial sector became 16% of GDP and 40% of corporate profit  and financial professionals were being paid more than anyone else.
 Example Merrill Lynch in 2008 generated 100 BILLION in revenue and paid 80 BILLION to its workers.  At the same time Merrill lost almost 15 billion and left a trail of empty houses and huge losses for its investors like pension funds for regular people.
More than half the stock trades now are held for less than 11 SECONDS.
Now trading is done by huge trading desks soley for speculation and those large positions often work large seesaws in the market place. New regulations are designed to stop such behavior! But of course the Republican party will tell they are not needed while they are collecting large donations from these banks.
 Few people realize that federal taxes of all kinds are roughly 15% of GDP is the lowest since 1950.
 Allowing the Bush tax cuts for all to expire on schedule would nearly balance the budget. Why isn't anybody talking that way. American's are so convinced we are over taxed now it's because the scorched earth Republican talk about taxes has stopped all sensible solutions.

1 comment:

Baxter said...

There is a lot of ignorance out there, Terry. Tea Partiers want to cut spending - but don't touch Medicare or Social Security. The "emperors new clothes" I refer to is the idea that we can balance the budget without significant new taxes.

I told Jimmy as far back as 2000 that tax cuts now mean higher taxes later. Well, later is here.