Republican megadonor and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson said he would pull his money out of the stock market if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the next presidential election, citing “uncertainty” around how she would handle the economy.
in Interview Paulson, founder of Paulson & Co., said in an interview with Fox Business host Liz Claman that the Biden-Harris administration wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 28%. Trump has previously Considered If elected president, he will nominate Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury.
“The differences between the Trump administration and Harris are very, very different,” Paulson explained. “Trump wants to extend the current, very successful tax policy that was put in place in 2017, whereas the Biden-Harris camp wants to change that. They want to change the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, and they want to raise the capital gains tax rate from the original 20% to 39%, but then they've put it back down to 28%.”
When Claman asked him what the “next big bet” would be, similar to Paulson's big bet on subprime mortgages, Paulson explained that it depended on “who's in the White House,” adding that he was concerned about whether Harris would win the presidential election and “advance” her proposed “tax reform and other economic plans.”
“Well, I think a lot of it depends on who's in the White House and who controls Congress,” Paulson explained. “I would be very concerned if Harris were elected and she pushed through the tax plan and other economic plans that she mentioned. You mentioned a tax on unrealized gains, and if they implemented a 25% tax on unrealized gains, it would trigger a mass sell-off of almost everything – stocks, bonds, homes, art. I think that would lead to a market crash and an immediate and pretty rapid economic recession.”
Claman noted that people pulled money out of the stock market even though the market was rising under the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
When asked if he would pull his money out of the stock market, Paulson said he would do so if Harris is elected due to uncertainty surrounding her economic plans and policies.
“It depends on the policies,” Paulson explained. “If Harris is elected, I would pull my money out of the market. I would put it in cash and gold, because the uncertainty about the plans that they put forward would create a lot of uncertainty in the market and probably send it down.”
