An article today on Marketwatch is a warning to the wealthy to buy stuff now to avoid rising consumer prices and the dangers of a Democratic presidency.

Presidential candidates see domestic wealth increases as prime pickings for tax increases, meaning that all the wealth that has come the way of the rich may be reduced some.
Obama has a “Tax Fairness for the Middle Class” plan that calls for nearly doubling the capital-gains tax rate from 15% to 28%. Clinton, getting advice from Warren Buffett, is in favor of keeping an estate tax in place; the tax is due to expire in 2010, then return the next year in a former incarnation.

John Edwards, too, wants an estate tax and has aggressively proposed repealing the Bush tax cuts for the highest-income households altogether. He also wants to close “unfair” loopholes like the tax breaks for hedge funds and private-equity fund managers and unlimited executive pensions—things the other candidates, too, have attacked.

All this means, if you are rich there’s a chance that more capital restrictions could apply in the future. Republican candidates, of course, are more forgiving and tax shy.

All of this also means that if a Democrat does take office next year, we could be seeing seed money for new ventures and development drying up along with a deepened recession and tightening job market. Look for that to happen within the first two years as first year tax increases are guaranteed with any of the Democrats. While I expect Obama or Edwards increases to be the kind that shock the markets, Hillary may have learned from her husband’s first term that baby steps are better when it comes to tax increases both economically and politically.

Again, one of the reasons that I like her as the best option from the left is that she probably learned the power of moderation when it comes to her more progressive instincts. It’s funny: I think her natural political instincts would be somewhere to the left of Obama, and that she really wishes she could shove a very aggressive agenda down our throats. I also believe that her political savvy would lead her to be much more of a centrist in the same way that Bill was and entirely willing to adopt some ideas from the right (like Bill did with welfare reform).

Read the rest.