Capital formation, job creation and economic stability cannot exist along side speculation. When nearly 80% of NYSE daily transactions are done by quant programs whose holding periods are measured in minutes, when the brightest of MIT and Stanford program for prop trading desks rather than build industries, and when the lowest US federal tax rates (10%) are enjoyed by option traders – you have the destruction of an economy.

Long term investors are at a disadvantage in the US tax code. Furthermore, the super rich who are benefiting from this speculation are keeping more and more of their money off-shore, untaxed. Over 1/3 of the world’s wealth is held off-shore. Everyone knows that ultimately the problems of Greece and Italy is that their wealthy do not pay taxes. In those countries it is actually illegal, in the US it is legal.

If we had capital gains, derivative and dividend tax structure as we had before the Reagan tax changes, the US economy would see a much more stable outlook and a much fairer income distribution.

Marx has very, very little to do with today’s current crisis. It’s all in the tax code.

Marx’s prescription for improvement was pretty useless. Interestingly it was pretty good for rapid industrial development from a feudal society.

I am mystified that so many people are only just beginning to notice this, after all, Bismarck said ‘A man who is not a socialist at the age of 20 has no heart. A man who remains a socialist at age 30 has no brain.”

This thinking about Marx is hardly new.