Whether an investor considers the just-passed reshaping of the health insurance system in the U. S. as beneficial reform or "deform", your thoughts quickly turn to that which you can control: your money.
I confess that I have not kept up on the amount of tax increases that are now scheduled to take effect over the next few years before the real costs (benefits to recipients) are felt by taxpayers. For now, this legislation withdraws spending power from the public and taxes interest income and capital gains, I believe with a new 3.8% "Medicare tax" (a misnomer, as revenues go to the general fund).
This is occurring while two fundamental measures of stock market valuation each show at least 50% overvaluation: cyclically-adjusted price-earnings ratio (CAPE) and "q" (valuation of non-financial stocks based on replacement cost). Please click HERE for a link to Smithers & Co.'s chart and commentary on this.
Can the anti-stimulus measures of upcoming revenue enhancements and the real and psychological effects of increasing taxes on income derived from savings (which savings derive from income that has already been taxed) provide the impetus for declining stock prices and rising prices of Federal debt?
In other words, the Japan scenario, in which imposition of a national sales tax was associated with the above results in the 1990s?
Yes.
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