It's a great time to be rich: The next two years will be the best in living memory for the wealthy

[Better Believe It]

It's a great time to be rich
If the tax cuts become law, the next two years will be the best in living memory for many wealthy Americans to shield their income and fortunes
By Ben Steverman
Business Week
December 16, 2010

Under legislation approved by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, and now moving on to the House, savvy wealthy Americans would be able to capitalize on an environment in which their tax rates on income and investments remain at historic lows. Also, new rules would make it possible to pass on fortunes to heirs with less fuss and lower taxes than all but a brief period of the past 80 years. It's a far cry from the 70 percent bite the federal government took out of the largest incomes and estates as recently as 1980.

The good news for the rich starts with income tax rates, which for top income groups would remain 35 percent, a rate enacted by former President George W. Bush in 2003. Except for a period from 1988 to 1992, the top tax rate has never been this low since 1931.

.... taxes on capital gains and dividends can be far more important to the rich than income tax rates. The tax compromise extends a 15 percent top tax rate on long-term capital gains and dividends enacted in 2003, which is the lowest rate since 1933. The top capital-gains rate was 77 percent in 1918 and, since 1921, its highest point was 39.9 percent in 1976 and 1977 — though certain gains could be excluded from taxation.

The number of people who must worry about estate taxes, already tiny, would shrink to less than 0.2 percent of the population, estimates Richard Behrendt, senior estate planner at Robert W. Baird & Co. In 2009, when the exemption was $3.5 million, 14,713 people had fortunes large enough to file taxable estate returns, according to the IRS. Just 4,296 of those people had estates of $5 million or larger. Compare that with the 2.47 million Americans who died in 2008, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40701302/ns/business


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Wealth gap becomes chasm at Christmas
Luxury retailers see strong demand as lower-income shoppers hunker down
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC.com
December 16, 2010

With just a few days left in the holiday shopping season, reports from retailers suggesting strong sales are prompting analysts and investors to declare that “the American consumer is back.”

Make that "some consumers." With unemployment stuck near 10 percent, home prices falling and foreclosures still rising, holiday shopping this year has brought into sharper focus the divide between upper- and lower-income American households.

“It’s very much a tale of two worlds,” said Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan. “There’s a big dichotomy between the well-educated, upper-income consumers — what the employment trends looks like, what the wage trends looks like — and the lower-income, less well-educated consumer. It’s a very different picture.”

The split mood among holiday shoppers is heavily tied to their employment outlook: Those at the upper end of the income ladder are feeling much better about their job prospects and income security than those at the bottom.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40593905/ns/business-stocks_and_economy

[Scurrilous]

1. K & R

Here's to the rich.:toast:

[Canuckistanian]

2. That's what tax cuts for the rich are all about - hiding income

Get that money OUT of the country ASAP before some killjoy do-gooders decide to end the cuts.

And now, they've got two more years to donate wildly (and anonymously) to shadowy funds that run misleading political ads to promote their bought-and-paid-for politicians. And that means LESS killjoys in Congress.

Thanks, Fat Tony and the Supremes.

[BlueCheese]

3. For F's sake.

That a Democratic President and Congress are about to extend Bush's tax cuts, even for high incomes, while maintaining a very low capital gains rate and establishing a low estate tax rate... RIGHT AFTER telling federal workers that they're not getting pay raises in order to lower the deficit...

Meanwhile people on the left are calling this victory and telling those of us who think it's a travesty that we're purists and sanctimonious and that we do it because we like whining...

Sigh.

[ladjf]

5. In your worst nightmare, a worse situation couldn't be happening

in America. We have NO President. nt

[ladjf]

4. The rate at which the rich are acquiring wealth is accelerating

exponentially. That projects into a future where 1% of Americans will own 100% of anything of value.
The rest of the people will slide into real slavery and then abject poverty and then dying in the streets of illness, malnutrition, and aging. There will be very few old people.

[leftstreet]

7. Why would 99% of the population let 1% get away with that?

Let them accumulate their wealth in just a few hands.

Easier to seize their assets

[ladjf]

8. That, my fellow poster, is THE question I've been racking my

brain over. Indeed, WHY? Why would they continue to select politicians who obviously don't have the people's best interest in mind?

Why did the Southerners jump at the chance in 1860 to fight and die to protect the wealth of the plantation owners? And even now, the descendants of those seceders believe that the decision of fight the Civil War was a just and good cause.

I can't answer your question of why. I can only watch in horror as it seems to be moving inexorably in that direction, unimpeded by anything of any significance. Even our Democratic President has sold us out for reasons unknown to me.

I read a lot of brave talk, lots of good ideas, good analysis of what is happening. But, I don't see signs that anyone of us has any workable solution to stopping the grand larceny that is occurring.

We need to figure out why 99% of the people are allowing 1% to steal everything.

[Mimosa]

6. Oh, heck, yes! n/t

[Luciferous]

9. Isn't every time a great time to be rich?

:shrug:

[gratuitous]

10. Yesiree Bob! Best deal we could have gotten

You didn't think that we were included in that "we" did you? Suckers!