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Tax raw derivatives as gambling rather than investments.

Created by R.M. on November 15, 2012

The financial markets today create products that are not investments in tangible businesses or property but are instead vehicles to allow people to bet whether some unrelated thing will or won't happen. These products that are not directly tied to a tangible investment do not help the economy, but they instead greatly contributed to the crashing of the economy in 2008. If these items were treated as the gambling that they are, losses from derivatives would only be deductible against other gambling losses and they would be taxed as ordinary income rather than at the lower capital gains rate. This change would increase tax revenue and increase investments in things that actually create jobs.

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