What do you think of this Warren Buffet tax proposal?

The fight against HFT, and intraday speculation just got serious. According to the WSJ, Warren Buffett, together with John Bogle and 25 others, have endorsed a petition that focusing on speculative stock gains "hurts the economy and may require regulation." From the statement:



"We believe that short-term objectives have eroded faith in corporations continuing to be the foundation of the American free enterprise system, which has been, in turn, the foundation of our economy."



Some proposals endorsed by Buffett et al:



To encourage investors to take the long view, the statement suggests that the government could change the tax-code to reward long-term holders over short-term holders 鈥?by, for example, setting capital gains tax rates that get gradually lower the longer an investor hangs on to a companies shares. Additionally, fund managers should act in the long-term interests of the investors whose money they manage 鈥?something that, the statement argues, fiduciary duty stipulates they do. Finally, activist investors who take large stakes in a company should be required to disclose when they have entered into derivative contracts to hedge away risk.



Of course, proponents of all things angelic brought to you compliments of some 1,000,000 shares a second HFT algo, will, as always, scream against this proposal, and retort with the usual defense that no matter how many million dollars one stock of Citigroup may cost, the precious, precious liquidity would simply go away if anyone dared to tax away even one microcent of HFT's winnings.



Yet, for the good of this country, the opinions of investment luminaries such as Buffett may hold a little more sway in the grand scheme of things.What do you think of this Warren Buffet tax proposal?
he voted for obama and has lost multi billions for his investors...



his time is past!!!
~~It has some merit to it.What do you think of this Warren Buffet tax proposal?
Makes sense. Day trading stocks adds nothing to the economy - no production, nothing.



Taxing unproductive activity, rather than long term investing, which adds capital to the market, makes a lot of sense.
Tax Code should be eliminated and should not be used to steer investment.

No deductions for anything and no penalties for anything.



We can then can most of the IRS and stop the manipulation of the markets by our governments. Even the mortgage interest deduction, just inflated the housing prices.What do you think of this Warren Buffet tax proposal?
As an Electronic Engineer, frequently I can buy electronic goods that would seem to be, and frequently are, superiour to the ones most people buy. Most people don't have any idea what is in that box, and they stab in the dark.



1. Should the economic processes of our government be as complex as they are?



I don't think so. I believe they could be simplified and brought forward in a way that we all understand where the money is going.

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2. Should the Stock Market be as complex as it is?



I don't think so again. This proposal is one way of simplyfying the processes and yanking control out of the hands who believe they are going to win at what amounts to a heck of a gambling table. I think that if that were the case when Enron went down, Enron would not have gone down... merely faded away.





I support any measure that would have the effect of simplyfying the economic processes related to the market and to Federal Government Spending.
just make anyone buying stock



pay cash



no margin buying



no short selling



pick wrong and you loose your money



and unable to go bankrupt



and call it a draw
Warren Buffet became a billionair by "focusing on stock gains".



Liberals probably don't know that.