4 ms·
This is an incredibly anti-savings policy, given that we have central banks ensuring positive inflation (except in Japan) and capital gains are calculated in no
by bzbarsky 8y ago
This is an incredibly anti-savings policy, given that we have central banks ensuring positive inflation (except in Japan) and capital gains are calculated in nominal, not real terms.
In other words, if you just hold some money for a few years and it doesn't lose value (interest rate equals inflation), you _already_ owe tax on it. That's just broken.
If we did capital gains in inflation-adjusted dollars, the situation would be somewhat different.
- Retric 8y agoThe world is flush capital which is driving down returns. We don't need to try and increase it as people with a surplus are always going to invest it.
- bzbarsky 8y agoI agree there's a problem there: we seem to have more capital than we need, yet we also have less savings (in the sense of people deferring consumption) than individuals need to have a comfortable retirement, for example. I have yet to see good solutions for this problem.