In December, the House of Representatives unleashed — or tried to — a new era of financial reform by passing the Consumer Protection Act of 2009. If passed and then signed, it would turn Wall Street as we know it upside down. Why? For one, it would make broker/dealers and their reps fiduciaries. more

Before you choke on the idea that muni bonds’ tax status would change (from a tax exemption to a tax credit), a major overhaul of the tax code recently introduce in D.C. actually has a few good items. One is repealing the AMT and lowering corporate income taxes, which are the highest in the world. Also, the plan, introduced by Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg, would close some loopholes in corporate taxes and create three individual tax rates (down from six), topping out at 35 percent. See this BusinessWeek story. more

The Cato Institute on why the health reform bill is a bad idea. Good stuff.

In sum, “The Obama administration on Monday released the president’s latest health reform proposal. Included in the plan is legislation that would allow the government to block excessive rate hikes by health insurance companies. Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon has long argued against such price controls: ‘Artificially limiting premium growth allows the government to curtail spending while leaving the dirty work of withholding medical care to private insurers. …This is not hope. This is not change. It is, to pinch a phrase, a return to ‘the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis.’”

And I would add, load up on ammo too. This is from today’s Times Online (the website for The Times of London):

“The world’s most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a “dirty war” by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash. more

If you are in Congress and a Democrat, it sure is fun affecting populist Demagoguery to beat up on those money grubbing Wall Street and the “shadow” banking system. But check out the gub’ment’s (pronounce with a Michigan Militia accent, please) own role in the home mortgage market. more

Let’s face it. The debate over the federal estate tax — which Republicans and libertarians like to call the death tax — is a heated debate despite the fact that it’s not really that important. I mean it’s not a big government revenue generator. But the debate over the tax does dig at the heart of a person’s political philosophy. more

Amazing. About 60 percent of taxpayers surveyed expect to get a refund on their 2009 taxes. So, quite literally: most people are clients of the state, that is, they receive handouts from the government. The non-partisan Tax Foundation has been railing about this problem for some time. As Natasha Altamirano writes on the Tax Foundation’s blog, fiscally troubled states and the federal government’s “tax systems are heavily reliant on high-income earners, out-of-control spending, promises that can’t be met and millions off the tax rolls.” more

Morningstar released its estimated mutual fund and ETF asset flows for January. I know there are plenty of investors out there who use asset flows to determine investment strategies (the so-called liquidity theory). But I am no expert — indeed, my contrarian impulses might take me to areas that have been experiencing asset outflows for a while. (For more on the liquidty theory, go to TrimTabs .) more

“Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn’t just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.” more

Surprise! Obama is “agnostic” about raising taxes on people who make less than a-quarter-of-a-million bucks, reports Bloomberg. You’ll remember that the no-taxing-the-little-guy was a central campaign promise of his (never mind that his tax-and-cap carbon emissions plan would have in essence been a tax on all consumers). But he now says any and all ideas about reducing the deficit need to be considered. Gosh, and this is change we can believe in? Reminds me of the Who line: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.