Consumer Caution and the Economy
Re “Fed Cuts Benchmark Rate to Its Lowest Since 1962,” Oct. 3: The Fed’s aggressive cutting of interest rates won’t be of much use to consumers and businesses if consumers are tightfisted because they don’t know if they’re going to get a pink slip tomorrow and if businesses won’t expand because they know those tightfisted consumers aren’t confident enough to let go of their hard-earned dollars.
Raymond Tam
Glendale
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Re “A Flurry of Rebound Legislation,” Oct. 3: Forget about $5-per-gallon gas; move over, amateurs--here comes Congress. In their haste to accommodate their largest contributors, members of Congress are brushing off wacky bills, under the guise of economic recovery and patriotism, that have languished, deservedly so. Their notion of the road to recovery is an easier way to get to Vegas, by high-speed train, to drink, gamble and whore our way to recovery.
Isaac Hirschbein
La Mesa
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While the government tries to blame the apparent recession on layoffs and repercussions from the Sept. 11 terrorism, the biggest reason this single-income family is not spending money is the electric and gasoline bills that seem to have doubled from last year. The news seems to have lost sight of this. I hold the state and federal administrations equally responsible for these obscene increases.
Mark McAndrews
Alta Loma
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According to John Balzar (Commentary, Sept. 30), a capital gains tax cut is not the right thing to do because the short-term market players would benefit. I am not sure what Balzar’s view of short term is, but in order to utilize the lower capital gains tax rates, investments must be held for more than one year. Investments held less than one year are taxed as ordinary income and those rates, as he stated, are higher than the capital gains tax rate.
I wonder if Balzar realizes that more capital investments are made when rates are lower. Look back to the period of 1979 to 1983 to determine what happens when capital gains taxes are cut.
James Rosenkranz
La Habra
