Rich getting ready for higher taxes?

NY Times:

The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts.

Late last year, the highest-income households started spending more confidently, while other consumers held back. But their confidence has since ebbed, according to retail sales reports and some economic analysis.

“One of the reasons that the recovery has lost momentum is that high-end consumers have become more jittery and more cautious,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

That cautious attitude stems in part from concerns about global instability, especially in Europe, and in part from the volatility of the stock market in recent months. Major stock indexes fell sharply on Friday, after several big companies announced disappointing earnings. Bank stocks were the biggest losers as investors wrestled with the twin issues of lower trading profits from Citibank and Bank of America and the prospect that new financial regulation would further crimp their businesses.

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The lead misses the obvious. The Democrats want to let the Bush tax cuts expire, at least for those making over $250,000 a year, i.e. the rich. I have long felt that liberals have no idea how sucking money out of the rich effects the economy. The rich buy things or invest their money and they do it in a way that is much more beneficial to the economy than the "investments" Obama has made with the failed stimulus. The poor do not buy custom furniture or expensive art. The rich do and create jobs in the process. A guy who makes custom furniture, buys tools, equipment and lumber in order to make the furniture. He produces a piece that cannot be found at Ikea or Walmart or even high end furniture stores.

The rich spend money on horse ranches and other things that add to the rural economy. Taking their money means taking it from the people who provide goods and services to the rich. The same thing is happening in New York city as the rich cut back in anticipation of having to pay higher taxes tot he Democrats. I don't think liberals will ever get it and if they do they want care.

You can certainly see that Salazar and others in this administration do not care about the harm they are causing to the oil and gas industry and the people who work in it with their ridiculous moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. They just don't care.