By Vahan Janjigian - Although I hate taxes, I like the fact that taxes affect behavior. In general, if you want less of something, tax it. If you want more, provide a tax subsidy.
Americans used to smoke a whole lot of cigarettes. Today, they smoke less than they used to. No doubt, some gave it up for health reasons. Others, however, decided it costs too much. We have taxed the hell out of tobacco products and we got less smoking as a result. That's good news for health, but bad news for politicians who thought higher taxes would create more revenue.
On the other hand, many of our politicians decided long ago that home ownership was a good thing. They wanted to encourage people to buy more homes. So they decided to allow home buyers to deduct the interest payments on their mortgage payments. Those who don't own homes are subsidizing those who do. Things worked as planned and we got more ownership as a result--maybe more than was optimal.
Now our politicians want us to buy cars. So they came up with the "cash for clunkers" idea. Trade in your old car for a new one now and the government (read taxpayers) will pay a good part of the cost. So today's car sales figures should be no surprise. Stocks like Ford took a big jump.
Unfortunately, the sales jump will not last. All we are doing with this program is bringing future sales forward. The more cars we buy now, the fewer cars we will buy later. Auto stocks that surged today will likely give up at least some of their gains tomorrow.
