((Yes from 1994, but still highly relevant))

As U.S. financial markets continue to teeter back and forth, it is clear that investors worldwide have little faith in the health of the American economy. In 1993, the performance of the U.S. stock market was 32nd on an index of 35 countries. Americans invested $40 billion more abroad last year than foreigners invested here - thus reversing a $500 billion net surplus of capital flowing into the United States in the 1980s.

There is a fairly simple and certain way for Washington to restore confidence in U.S. financial markets: Cut the capital gains tax.

Remember that issue? As the centerpiece of his economic agenda in 1989, George Bush proposed chopping the capital gains tax rate roughly in half. When the George Mitchells and the Tom Foleys of Congress started retaliating with their mantra of "tax cuts for the rich," frightened Republicans fled en masse from the issue. Recent evidence overwhelmingly confirms that the GOP was right and the Democrats were wrong on that issue; yet Republican leaders seem content to allow it to rest in peace.