My God, you are an idiot.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

Goddamn the Swiss are boring.

Tops in household debt to GDP though.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

So now you're on board with phasing out that mortgage deduction?

I don't think it's a good idea given the RE market.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Daniel Davies:



Ouch.

he should dump Biden and pick up Nader. Protect his flank.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

So if you compare tax rates increasing by 4.6% on current income (as in, Bush tax cuts expiring) or total invested assets declining in value by over 11% (as in the "Boehner Slide"), I would guess most of the people on these boards have lost enough in the Boehner Slide to have funded several years of increased taxes.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sgtclub

I don't think it's a good idea given the RE market.

So you really don't want to phase out deductions. Or at least not one of the biggest, most distortive ones.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

So if you compare tax rates increasing by 4.6% on current income (as in, Bush tax cuts expiring) or total invested assets declining in value by over 11% (as in the "Boehner Slide"), I would guess most of the people on these boards have lost enough in the Boehner Slide to have funded several years of increased taxes.

I ain't retiring yet, or soon, so I tend to view any and all stock market slides as buying opportunities, but I take your point.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

So you really don't want to phase out deductions. Or at least not one of the biggest, most distortive ones.

I think it would be foolish to kill RE pricing in this environment. If we get back to par I'm open to looking at the affects, but ultimately, I don't think it's practical. But that is not the only deduction out there.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Adder

I ain't retiring yet, or soon, so I tend to view any and all stock market slides as buying opportunities, but I take your point.

I bought today.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sgtclub

I think it would be foolish to kill RE pricing in this environment. If we get back to par I'm open to looking at the affects, but ultimately, I don't think it's practical. But that is not the only deduction out there.

I think it can probably be capped or phased out for higher incomes, and thus made less regressive, without having too much impact on housing prices now.

Granted, that's class warfare and all.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Adder

I think it can probably be capped or phased out for higher incomes, and thus made less regressive, without having too much impact on housing prices now.

Granted, that's class warfare and all.

Huh? People buy homes based on tax dollars. This would kill real estate.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by sgtclub

Huh? People buy homes based on tax dollars. This would kill real estate.

adder just means for rich people. nothing we do to them can hurt anything.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

adder just means for rich people. nothing we do to them can hurt anything.

Yup

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by sgtclub

I think it would be foolish to kill RE pricing in this environment. If we get back to par I'm open to looking at the affects, but ultimately, I don't think it's practical. But that is not the only deduction out there.

What is par? The years before the recession were a bubble -- where "should" we be now?

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Adder

I think it can probably be capped or phased out for higher incomes, and thus made less regressive, without having too much impact on housing prices now.

Granted, that's class warfare and all.

I'm sorry but that's ridiculous. The last thing we need is to make the tax code more complicated. And doing this will be yet another plum for the rural parts of the country, where housing is cheap and where an income of $100k (or whatever) means something different than in New York, San Francisco, etc. Unless, of course, you index the cap based on region or zip code or.... ugh.

Beyond that, eliminating the mortgage deduction is not regressive. To the contrary, the deduction itself is regressive -- poor and middle income people, particularly people who make enough to pay income tax (hi, Hank!) but too little to buy a home where they live, get roundly fucked on this.

It should be phased out, either by gradually lowering the amount that is deductible or by allowing a deduction of a %% of interest. The idea that was floating around for awhile, of eliminating it and using that plus other fixes to support reduced tax rates overall, is the right idea.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

What is par? The years before the recession were a bubble -- where "should" we be now?

Par = height of the market. It was a bubble then. At some point in the next 5-10 years, we will probably be back to those values.