Goldman Sachs and Wall Street – As Usual the Big Winners
“So in this
honeymoon, the market got to look on dreamily at the effects of higher interest
rates and steeper yield curves that will bolster lending margins for banks
without worrying much about what that means for the rest of the economy.
The
market stared into the sexy eyes of a potential dismantling of the Dodd-Frank
Act -- and all the capital that would be unlocked and returned to shareholders,
and all the animal spirits set free once again on trading desks -- without
having to worry about how we'll clean up the mess of the next financial crisis.”
Related:
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Here are a few key policy changes to expect in 2017:
From the WSJ –
“Donald Trump’s victory emboldens Republicans to complete one of the party’s core missions: slashing tax rates on individuals and businesses….
“It’s going to be a top priority of the House, which will force the issue, regardless of where it is on everyone else’s radar,” said Sage Eastman, a former House GOP aide. “It will galvanize the town and could be the most significant and major piece of legislation to move early on in the administration.”…
They would lighten tax burdens on high-income individuals and multinational corporations and repeal the 100-year-old estate tax…
Both [Senate and House] plans would also significantly increase budget deficits and give the largest tax cuts to high-income households. Mr. Trump’s plan, for example, would reduce federal revenue by $6.2 trillion over a decade, according to the Tax Policy Center, a project of the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute. The top 1% of households would get a 13.5% boost in after-tax income, compared with a 4.1% increase for the entire population.”
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Voters often appear to vote against their self-interest.
“Louisiana is the second-poorest state and second-to-last in human development, which is a measure of individual freedom. The state’s rate of fatal cancers is about 30 percent higher than the national average. For all its antifederalism, Louisiana is fourth in accepting government welfare, with 44 percent of its budget coming from Washington. (Many of Hochschild’s Tea Party friends are beneficiaries of federal welfare programs.) Louisiana has the highest rate of death by gunfire (nearly double the national average), the highest rate of incarceration, and is the fifth-least-educated, reflecting the fact that it spends the fifth-least on education. It is sixth in the nation in generating hazardous waste, and third in importing it, since it makes a side business out of storing other states’ trash….
The paradox that most baffles Hochschild is the question of environmental pollution. Even the most ideologically driven zealots don’t want to drink poisoned water, inhale toxic gas, or become susceptible to record flooding. Yet southwestern Louisiana combines some of the nation’s most fervently antiregulatory voters with its most toxic environmental conditions. It is a center of climate change denial despite the fact that its coast faces the highest rate of sea-level rise on the planet.”
