Impact of Tax Rate Changes on Capital Gains Realizations

The chart below shows the history of capital gains realizations since 1954: Click to enlarge Capital gains realizations significantly move up-or-down depending on bull or bear markets. They also rise or decline significantly after changes in capital gains tax rates.Strong rises or declines in capital gains realizations have often occurred not long after the tax …

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Why the U.S. Unemployment Rate Remains Stubbornly High?

In an earlier article I wrote about how U.S. corporate profits are rising with no job growth. The unemployment rate continues to remain high at 9.8% in November with about 15.1 Americans unemployed according to BLS data. An article in Salon.com discussed about this conundrum facing the U.S. From the article titled “Where are the …

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Employment Growth Lags GDP Revival In Recoveries

The Great Recession that started in December 2007 ended in June 2009, according to The National Bureau of Economic Research. While the recovery from June last year has been modest, the unemployment rate has worsened since then and now continues to hover around the 10% mark. According to official figures, in November the U.S. unemployment …

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Two-Track Recovery: Emerging Markets vs.Developed Markets

The divergence between the economic growth of emerging markets and development markets  is projected to continue next year. As in the recent few years, economic growth in emerging economies is estimated to outpace growth in developed economies. The graph below shows the Real GDP Growth for Emerging Asia and Latin America relative to developed markets: …

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MSCI Index Performance: Poland vs. Ireland

An article in The New York Times recently compared the economies of Poland and Ireland. From the article: WARSAW — With its drab, Soviet-era boulevards and standard-issue glass-and-steel office buildings, Warsaw does not look much like green, elegant Dublin. But there are some striking similarities between Poland today and Ireland in the 1990s. Like the …

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