[quote=ucodegen]The problem is that it opens the whole thing to a fishing contest. Romney makes most of his income from Investments. 2008 was a very bad year for investments and any smart tax planner would use the losses of 2008 to cancel any gains in 2009 and after if possible. I think the Obama campaign is trying to bring up that Romney didn’t pay taxes in 2009 (because of investment losses). This is likely to play well people who don’t understand saving and investing, and will make a good ‘sound bite’ and diversion from the facts and presidential performance. The problem is that the previous election, very few Democrat Presidential hopefuls revealed their tax returns. Almost all of the Republican hopefuls revealed 2 years. One needs to ask: What is the real point of this requirement?
I would have to disagree with you on these. The statement that gov policies don’t matter in the developed world does not stand up to facts nor is supported by evidence. A simple change in government policies and create or destroy entire businesses in the developed world. NOTE: Creation of all of the security businesses, TSA etc. NOTE: The overturn of standard business bankruptcy rules in the GM BK, and how it has now caused lenders to not want to pick up corp bonds… [/quote]
There’s been plenty of fishing expeditions on oth sides. Just like most presidential candidates didn’t hav to be subjected to fishing expeditions in regard to birth certificates and college transcripts.
Of course, one can say, hey, we got a guy with a Muslim name, of course we need to check his birth place with a fine tooth comb. And then one can say, hey, this guy prob didn’t earn his spot in Harvard since he is black. Since these were valid reasons, then assuming Romney may have benefited from tax loopholes and tax havens is also a valid concern. Of course, most likely everything was perfectly legit, which means releasing the tax records is not a big deal.
As for select businesses that may be affected by various policies from government, of course. But that’s on a micro level. I’m referring to the natural cyclical macroeconomic trend, unless there’s sudden shift in type of government, you are unlikely to see much difference. (but then the right would have us believe Obama is leading us to Communism, so perhaps they truly do fear this).
