Mr Khan said:
Kasz216 said:
Mr Khan said:
Kasz216 said:
I mean, actually the biggest problem the US faces right now is that the US companies have made some huge profits but aren't reinvesting that. While it's fun to just blame the big faceless corporations, a better question is... wh
Uncertanity to make a profit/uncertantity about costs of obama's healthcare plan/uncertanity of their tax rates.
Plenty of money is sitting out of the economy because of this.
To use a simple example. Say you own a shoe making company, and the government puts in a stimulus for shoes. Are you going to reinvest that money in your buisness, knowing that shoe demand is based soley on goverment spending that can't keep up for every, that soon you'll have to pay an indeterminate amount extra per employee, that your bank may have to keep more money on hand, therefore woudln't even give you a loan right now if you asked?
For the US, there is no real answer but time, for stuff like the Obama healthcare law to either go it's course and it's price be known, or for it to just disappear.
Really, that's the only answer for most financial problems but whatever. (With deficit spending only existing in times of trouble to provide for those in need, not companies that aren't going to reinvest until all the uncertainty is gone anyway.)
That's why the US "recovery" has essentially been a jobless one with little to no help to the average person. |
Forcing a higher taxation rate on idle money could kick that around. I would argue for regulations that reward companies for growth and punish companies for providing executives with excessive pay-rises or simply sitting on huge warchests for so long. If the carrot of economic growth through spending because of companies' petty political concerns cannot be used, then the stick must be employed: spend the money well or i'll just take it from you and spend it how i want.
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Yeah, i agree with that. I mean i keep thinking back to Howard Hughes. Just because idle money was more expensive then cash on hand. Of course it's something you'd want an expiring timer on though.
The big problem though is that 57% of corporate idle funds are in overseas bank accounts immune to current tax laws. Further tax increases may end up instead just increasing that number. So instead we probably need to find a way to tax all idle funds regardless of the country they are currently in.
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Tax it as soon as it re-enters the country, though it would be hard saying what money went where definitively.
Pouring pressure on countries that create tax havens would be a start. Surely we could (through our good ties with Great Britain), help bully the Cayman Islands into taxing wealth at a rate more in line with the USA.
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Even then though, that doesn't really solve the problem though.
I mean say you have a 50% Repatritization tax, and a 25% Idle fund tax.
I leave money overseas for 3 years... I've beat that tax by 25%.
Plus, that idle money for those 3 years is now being used for investments and money in other countries.
Really we more need tracking and enforcement that just allows us to tax money no matter where it is. Your american, why the heck do I care where your money is.
Probably combined with something that just taxes all commerce in the US from non american sources. I mean why shouldn't foreign companies have to pay for the awesome economic conditons we've created for them to use? Not in a protectionist way but in a broad fair even tax. Maybe make it for all companies and lower local coporation taxes an equal amount so corporations in the us pay the same effective rate.
