Obama’s Attack on Investors
A major TV network asked me last week to comment on the “growing inequality issue between the rich and the middle class.” I said Americans are more concerned about other issues, such as jobs and ObamaCare, but the reporter insisted that inequality was THE issue of the day.
President Obama is making inequality #1 issue in this year’s midterm elections, which means hold on to your pocketbook!
Obama has already signed into law a sharp tax increase on investors: short-term capital gains rates are going up to 39.6%, long-term rates from 15% to 20%, plus an additional 3.8% tax on capital gains to pay for ObamaCare.
We fought long and hard for tax relief for investors, and it’s all disappearing fast.
President Obama’s rhetoric is often anti-business: In his autobiography, he referred to the private sector as “the enemy”… in his speech on inequality, he insisted that America is in danger of becoming a nation where success is reserved for a fortunate few. Note that he said economic success is “reserved,” not earned.
And he favored increasing the capital gains tax “for purposes of fairness.”
I noticed that he has not taken credit for the stock market rally in the past five years. He went out of his way to vilify Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his private equity firm Bain Capital. He apparently hates investors and risk-takers and wants no part of Wall Street (except campaign donations). He probably thinks “The Wolf of Wall Street” is standard operating procedure (it’s not).
This talk about inequality and fairness can only mean one thing: More taxes and regulations on Wall Street.
As my friend Alex Green recently wrote, “In Obama’s view, your portfolio is unfair, unjust and diminishes others. You haven’t heard the last from him on this subject.” I suggest you read Alex Green’s insightful column about Obama’s demonization of investors and apparent lack of regard for free enterprise.
During the past weekend, my wife Jo Ann and I spent some time with marketing guru Craig Huey and his wife at their Lake Arrowhead home. Craig told me that the upcoming Davos conference in Switzerland, where the likes of George Soros and Paul Krugman get together to develop new schemes to tax and regulate you, will focus on the big inequality issue. In other words, expect more attacks on you as an investor. Craig is so concerned about the direction our country is headed and its impact on your investments that he has just released this short, six-minute video on why you must attend this anti-Davos summit. I urge you to watch it.
We now have posted the full schedule for the Global Financial Summit in the Bahamas, Feb. 5-7. Check out our incredible lineup of speakers below.
You Blew It! Gov. Cuomo Tells Conservatives to Leave State
“Extreme conservatives have no place in the state of New York.’’
— Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on public radio that “extreme conservatives” — that is, people who are pro-life, pro-Second Amendment and pro-traditional marriage — “have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
It’s a sad commentary when a governor of a state makes a large percentage — perhaps a majority — of citizens unwelcome. Is he asking most Catholics, Mormons and evangelical Christians to leave the state of New York?
I see that Sean Hannity is taking him at his word and planning to leave the great Empire State for Florida or Texas.
It’s bad enough that New York leads the nation in high state income taxes and has chased away millions of its own citizens to Florida and other states with no income tax. Plus, New York recently was rated the worst state in the union for being pro-small business (ranked #50). Is this a time to be bashing its own citizens, especially those in Northern and Western New York who are largely Republican with traditional values?
Whatever happened to a state chief executive being the governor of all citizens? Whatever happened to tolerance?
Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino said it best, “New York’s greatness comes from accepting people of differing points of view. What Andrew Cuomo has revealed by these statements is his true self, because we see just how angry and radical his views are.”
In case you missed it, I encourage you to read my e-letter column about how minimum wage is not the best way to improve lives that appeared last week in Eagle Daily Investor. I also invite you to comment in the space provided below my Eagle Daily Investor commentary.
In liberty, AEIOU,
Mark Skousen
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Upcoming Appearances
O The Global Financial Summit is only three weeks away! I’ll be moderating a special panel on “How to Predict the Top (and Bottom) of the Markets,” with Bert Dohmen, top money manager Adrian Day and bestselling financial author Peter Schiff. Don’t miss it. We will have our first Austrian Investment Conference there with James Grant, Martin Truax, Joel Stern, Mark Spitznagel and many others. Other speakers include Steve Moore (Wall Street Journal), Michael Steele, Robert Poole, Jr., and Johan Norberg (from Sweden). Join us at five-star Atlantis Resort in Paradise Island, the Bahamas (only $199 a night, plus tax). Call Tami today at 1-866/266-5101, or go to www.freedomfest.com/gfs.
O World Money Show, Jan. 29-Feb. 1, Gaylord Palm Resort, Orlando: Join Ann Coulter, Dennis Gartman, Harry Dent, Lou Navellier, Jim Stack, Marilyn Cohen, Elliott Gue, Ned Riley, Marc Lichtenfeld, Jim Lowell and me. To register, go to MarkSkousen.WorldMoneyShow.com or call the Money Show at 1-800/970-4355, and mention priority code 034196.
