Con game.Con Game con game n. Slang A confidence game. Noun 1. con game - a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property "THE ISSUE before the country is the re-establishment of confidence,' said President Herbert Hoover in early 1932, "by ending these delays in balancing the budget through immediate passage of revenue measures.' Shortly thereafter Congress raised tax rates from 1.5 to 9 per cent at low incomes, and from 25 to 63 per cent at the top. Confidence went down, not up, and individual-income-tax receipts fell by more than 21 per cent. President Hoover's "confidence' game is being played again in current budget negotiations. If the resulting compromise includes some bad taxes, like the House proposals to change the rules regarding deductions for interest expense so as to protect sleepy sleepy characterized by sleep. sleepy foal disease see shigellosis. sleepy staggers see hepatic encephalopathy. companies from takeovers, then the stock market will not be pleased. In that case, the tax-raisers' argument will be that the markets are disappointed that the package was so small, and what we need is a bigger dose of poison poison, any agent that may produce chemically an injurious or deadly effect when introduced into the body in sufficient quantity. Some poisons can be deadly in minute quantities, others only if relatively large amounts are involved. . If, on the other hand, the budget plan is not as bad as expected, the markets may be relieved. In that case, the argument will be that if some taxes are good, then more taxes must be even better. This is a no-win game for Republicans, if not a deliberate trap. There are other markets, aside from the stock market, that are also said to need more "confidence' that investors will pay more taxes. The foreign-exchange market supposedly will sink the dollar, regardless of monetary policies at home or abroad, unless the budget deficit is reduced. This is said, with a straight face, by the same people who once told us that budget deficits made the dollar go up. A related story is that German and Japanese central banks This is a list of central banks. Contents A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z are engaging in blackmail blackmail, in law, exaction of money from another by threat of exposure of criminal action or of disreputable conduct. The term was originally used for the tribute levied until the 18th cent. , threatening to keep interest rates high unless the U.S. raises tax rates. If so, that would simply hurt Germany and Japan twice--first, by causing deflation deflation: see inflation. deflation Contraction in the volume of available money or credit that results in a general decline in prices. A less extreme condition is known as disinflation. as their currencies rose; second, by causing recession as steeper U.S. taxes resulted in a cutback cut·back n. 1. A decrease; a curtailment: "The political effects of food cutbacks could be devastating" New York Times. 2. on imports. The U.S. need not take advice from Japan, which had zero economic growth in the second quarter, or from Germany, which has had almost zero growth for a whole year. Before the budget compromise began, the great risk was said to be that Gramm-Rudman would require a $23-billion cut in federal spending, with no increase in taxes. The loss of confidence only began with the tilt away from spending cuts Noun 1. spending cut - the act of reducing spending cut - the act of reducing the amount or number; "the mayor proposed extensive cuts in the city budget" toward tax increases. The greater that tilt becomes, the greater the danger. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion