Obviously, enacted in 2013, this law signed by President Obama made many previously temporary tax rates permanent, forever and ever (at least until the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was passed). Highlights of the ATRA included squashing the expiration of tax breaks, kicking the can down the road on governmental spending cuts, and jacking up tax rates on rich folks.
Individuals making less than $400,000 (or $450,000 for married couples) saw their tax rates held constant with rates put into place under President George W. Bush. However, rates for incomes above that level, as well as estate taxes, were increased. Rates were also updated for capital gains and dividends (15% for most people, with a 20% maximum) while tax credits were set in stone for costs related to raising children.
Again, many of the affected rates were changed in 2017 so, while potentially interesting from an historical perspective, much of the ATRA ceased being applicable in 2018. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Market Manipulation?2 Views
Finance allah shmoop What is market manipulation All right people
Ah sleazy hedge fund trader guy with a huge friendly
smile has been shorting shares of a vaguely known tech
name Thingamabob thingamabob Dot com Yeah that's it and yeah
even they don't know what this thing does Well heggie
mk sludge is betting the shares will go down soon
and he'll profit from the short sale Well they aren't
going down so he's panicking Well he just jumps into
action calling with a disguised voice a bunch of financial
journalists who have next to no training in finance He
whispers to them about fraud in the reporting of the
books of thing He finds an ident him to a
cod ical to an addendum on page four hundred eighty
two on their filings from their uh who's becca stan
office And then he whispers money laundering being unschooled in
hungry for a headline The journalists have no idea what
to dio who to call to actually get a real
reading on this issue S o they do what most
financial journalist d'oh which is just vomit letters on their
blogged writing about potential fraud at this thing All right
Well about eight seconds after the headlines start hitting the
tape well and they come from a four different journalists
So those headlines must be accurate right Well things doc
it's cut in half Heggie mix sludge covers is short
by buying back the shares he shorted and he makes
a fortune and the market has been perfectly manipulated illegally
Yeah you can't do this people This is not legal
and it's just one illustration of tons of market manipulation
schemes out there Other schemes Well today an obvious one
lives inside all the social media world where fake news
can be planted anonymously with few if any repercussions for
the violator if you can even find him Another more
nefarious scheme involves collusion of that quote respected unquote wall
street sell side analysts who when filled with truckloads of
negative data about a company voluntarily given to him by
heggie mk sludge is finally swayed under the promise and
boss pressure of massive commission revenues from that hedge fund
teo write something negative That is if the sell side
analysts will only accede and write a very highly critical
report of the company confirming at least a few points
Made by the hedge fund that things were not so
rosy While then the remaining legions of wall street penguins
will all follow suit jumping into the waters of cell
mortimer cell they'll crater the stock and let the hedge
fund make a fortune again covering his short Well the
same goes in the other direction of course with a
little whisper that well google wants to buy them for
one hundred eighty two dollars a share I heard this
in the the restroom there well in the real world
there's a close knit club of market manipulators you know
birds of a feather and they all tend to live
eventually right here f y i visiting hours are from 00:03:04.368 --> [endTime] ten to four tuesdays and fridays
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