Redistribution in the US

[Thylacine-2]

A very rough picture of the existence of redistributive policies in the US can be created by looking at the top tax rates for various periods.

1917 to 1921    67% to 73%    This was to pay for WW1

1925 to 1931    25%

1932 to 1981    63% to 91%    This 50 year period was the era of redistribution in the US.  A dark era?

1982 to 1986    50%                 A transition period?

1987 to  present 28% to 39.60%, 35% since 2003

At the present time neither of the two political parties are promoting redistributive tax policies.  Redistribution ended in 1981.

[ArtM72]

I would hate to state the obvious but America's dominance in international power and domestic economic expansion occurred during the late 1950s and 1960s when tax rates were the highest and when we were not burning our resources in foreign wars.

I'm sure though someone will dispute this simple observation, and suggest that despite the deficits we've generated with the tax cuts since the 1980s and recent wars our nation will be stronger with more tax cuts and more gunboat diplomacy. But you know what? I expect those on this board are not quite so inclined to jumping to that conclusion.

On the PNG front, a little profit taking today as the rest of the market rallies. Options expiration is ? and max pain is ?