Surviving the Fiscal Cliff

Long term capital gain tax goes from 15% to 20%. Big deal.

Certain filers with incomes over $200,000 pay a special 3.8% Medicare tax on certain investment income. Big deal.

No more qualified dividends. Hence dividend tax rates rise at most (and depending on one's bracket) from 0% to 28%. The 28% is a marginal rate. The first portion yada of one's income is first taxed at 15%.

Most everyone has health insurance: Potentially a bargain for companies who need healthy workers to crank out the product that produces corporate earnings that pay my dividend.

I have been taking gains and re-balancing throughout this year, because tax rates are likely to rise, and a few hundred dollars extra here and there is a lot of nice lunches with buddies in the coming years. Yet I have three more positions I would like to sell and if I don't sell them, it's not a big deal. They're still long-term positions.

marketing/media/politico-spinner type. The changes that are happening are minuscule in my opinion. At worst, they result in tax rates comparable to recent decades.

Ben Bernanke first used this metaphor in his Feb 2012 report before Congress. I agree it is a rather strong metaphor.

======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT: sorry for the delay in approving this...