Lukewarm Wall Street

[Marvin Gandall <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Wall Street is not as enamoured of George Bush as might be supposed and some
think a John Kerry presidency would be better for the economy, reports the
American financial weekly, Barron’s. “Wall Street…is pretty much divided on
the two candidates”, writes Jim McTague.



In essence, as individual investors, the big capitalists favour the Bush
income and dividend tax cuts for self-interested reasons, but as a class
they worry the reductions have swollen a soaring budget deficit which
threatens to collapse the dollar and the economy. Wall Street has
traditionally looked to the Republicans as deficit hawks, even though stock
returns have historically been better under the freer spending Democrats.



McTague says the “centrepiece” of Kerry’s program is to boost income taxes
on earnings above $143,500 to protect Social Security and Medicare –
programs the corporations and Republicans are determined to cut. Unless
there is an unanticipated shock to the economy, you can expect current
robust profit growth and Wall Street’s  traditional party allegiance to
again take precedence over its habitual nagging doubts.



Article reproduced on www.supportingfacts.com



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