More Stimulus Ideas That Sound An Awful Lot Like Crony Capitalism
From my own state of Arizona (emphasis added)
A group of small-business proponents is asking the Legislature to guarantee startup money for Arizona enterprises.
The backers of a so-called Arizona Fund of Funds made their pitch to a handful of lawmakers Monday, saying businesses need government help to start hiring again.
That help should come in the form of tax credits, said John Kowalski, who is promoting the idea through the Arizona Growth Foundation, a group of venture capitalists working to bring more investment to the state.
The credits would be a safety net to encourage venture capitalists to invest in a pool of money that would be distributed to emerging businesses, said Kowalski, a former executive with the Arizona Small Business Association....
The government's role is to serve as a guarantor, through the tax credits, in case the investments don't yield the projected results.
While this is being sold as something for small business, what it looks like to me is just more of the same socialization of bankers' losses that helped get us into this financial mess. I suppose this "profits are mine if it makes money, losses are the governments if it loses money" never grows old for investment bankers and VC's, but why is anyone taking this seriously anymore?
Mesa Econoguy:
Solyndra, pts. 4,458 - 25,300.
This is a bullshit venture capital fund, at taxpayer expense, with the major difference being governments do not have skeptical boards of directors demanding annual ROR and performance disclosures (many of which demanded, ironically, by government).
Imagine running any corporation and spending $1 trillion on your brainchild Project Porkulus (a.k.a. "stimulus") producing enormous losses, and presenting that to your b.o.d.
Good luck with that Barry/Assholerod.
October 5, 2011, 8:45 pmBob Smith:
What AZ needs isn't "tax credits", but tax cuts.
1) Arizona has one of the highest combined state+local sales taxes in the country, yet it still has a substantial income tax. Get rid of the personal income tax, or at least pass the reform measure that was proposed and quashed earlier this year.
2) Arizona's personal income tax isn't inflation-adjusted. Failing (1), at least fix that, along with some instant inflation-adjustment to account for the previous decades in which it wasn't adjusted.
3) I'd prefer to get rid of Arizona's corporate income tax, since corporate income taxes always have surprisingly low revenue and high compliance costs. Alternatively, make the declining tax rate that's scheduled to be in effect in 2016 and put it into effect now, along with a large exemption for the first $X in corporate income. Florida's is $50k, for example.
3) Get rid of Arizona's ad valorem tax on automobiles. It's outrageously expensive to register a car in Arizona, probably even more expensive than California.
October 5, 2011, 10:13 pmSmock Puppet, Piloting The Economic Seas Betwixt Scilla and Charybdis:
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>>> but why is anyone taking this seriously anymore?
Dude, these are the same people who, 20 years after the fall of the USSR, 15 years after China decided that capitalistic ideas weren't quite so bad after all, STILL believes in state collectivism and socialist economic policies.
These are the same people who, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS after the mid-70s trashed EVERY idea that Keynes ever had, and 15 years after Japan's endless economic meltdown has made a total hash of all the NeoKeynesian ideas attempted to use to repair what the 70s trashed, STILL THINK KEYNES HAS MERIT.
The defining characteristic of libtards everywhere is their absolute and complete incapacity to learn from EXPERIENCE.
If there was a "Wisdom Quotient" test to match the "IQ" test, then libtards would consistently process out as "widiots" -- people MORE than a full standard deviation below mean "WQ".
Seriously. They just cannot learn from mistakes and errors...
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October 6, 2011, 6:37 amDrTorch:
Kaisch is doing the same thing in Ohio. He's proud of it, following in Taft's lead.
The general population likes the idea though, they're happy to believe that one of those investments will be a grand slam, and provide jobs for them for life.
October 6, 2011, 6:53 amJim Collins:
How much of a contribution are they planning to make to the DNC to get these credits?
October 6, 2011, 6:59 amDon:
Soooo... I can start a business, with other peoples money, and if I lose money me AND those people get all or most of our money back, but if I make money, we get to keep our profits.
Where do I sign up?
I'm almost to the point of, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I'm tired of risking my own money, only to have a huge chunk of it taken away by the government.
October 6, 2011, 8:11 amIan Random:
Amazing how they will go to these extremes for business, but making regulatory compliance easier isn't even mentioned.
October 6, 2011, 10:13 amSmock Puppet, Piloting The Economic Seas Betwixt Scilla and Charybdis:
>> Amazing how they will go to these extremes for business, but making regulatory compliance easier isn’t even mentioned.
Yeah, Innit?
October 7, 2011, 3:48 am