Debeo Summa Credo: david_gaithersburg: Debeo Summa Credo: david_gaithersburg: The important thing here is that Buffet and all of Obama's hedge fund friends will get to keep their 15% tax rate on investments held for milliseconds.

You do realize that the 15% rate applies only to investments held for at least a year, right?

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You are thinking of the rule that applies to you and me. There is a loophole that allow hedge funds and investment companies to declare the 15% rate for all investments, so high frequency traders like Buffet enjoy the 15% rate all of the time. The current administration refuses to touch this, instead they babel on about how rich you and I are and how you and I must pay more. Closing that loophole on Obama's buddies would raise a whole lot of cash, and possibly even slow down the Buffets and Goldman's of the world. Google "15 capital gains tax for hedge funds"

You are wrong, or at least I'm 99% sure you are wrong. Please provide any citations that support your claims... it will help me tell you why your views/the source are incorrect or, in the remote possibility that I'm wrong, you'll see my shocked face and get an apology.

The 'carried interest' loophole essentially allows fund managers to be taxed on their performance fees on investment funds, in the same manner that the investors gains on the underlying investments are taxed. It is much more common in PE funds, where by nature investments are held for long periods of time (5-7 years).

Example: A fund manager may only put in $1 and get investors to contribute $99 to a fund that makes an investment. Upon realization of a gain on that investment (Say $50), the PE manager not only gets the returns on his dollar (50 cents) but also frequently 20% of the gains of his investors ($9.90). To the extent the gain qualifies for capital gains (held for longer than one year), the carried interest loophole allows the manager to not only treat the 50 cents as capital gains but also the $9.90.

If the gains are short ...

You don't have access to Google?

HeadLever: If you were not talking about wiping out the debt (shaking the ecth-a-sketch) as you put it

Oh, but I am.

what are you talking about?

A very arduous process of creating a nationally internal spreadsheet of who owes what, to whom is it owed, under what sort of construct, how much of it is utter horsesh*t (derivatives), how much is collectable, and in what time frame, how much ins externally indexed. It gets the hogs out of the trough, the gamblers out of the machine shop and the bums off the plush. And it would hurt like hell for about a year after. Then it gets way better and stays that way due to some rather draconian and PITA regulations what will actually lift all most boats. Boats don't float in trickle down. Trickle down is Bush cutting everybody a check for just enough for a New TeeVee, a Blackberry and a Red Lobster dinner. This is sitting down with a calculator and cutting the sh*t. And heads will roll. but at least only figuratively.

Zeb Hesselgresser: Democratic rule.

You guys... don't know how this - "America" thing works, do you?

How easy would it be to fix all the world's financial problems? Reset everything to zero across the board. That way, profitable ventures will continue and failing ventures will fail. Rich people who deserve to be rich will become rich again. It'll all work out, I swear.

/WilhelmScream

As long as we don't look down it will be OK.