Bill Gates suggests Tax Increase in the U.S

The U.S. economy will take years to recover from the recession and taxes should be increased to bring the federal budget to a balanced position, said yesterday Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and officially the richest man in the world. Speaking to ABC, Gates has also come out against excessive state intervention, while the U.S. president Barack Obama stressed that focus should be put upon longer term policy issues such as education, to remove the effects of the worst recession experienced by the U.S. since the late the 1930s. “When you face a financial crisis like this, it will take years to disappear completely.

The budget currently shows a large deficit, and although the economy seems to be recovering, barring any changes in tax policy and the tax enforcement mechanism will not return the budget to a balanced position, said president Obama. It is worth mentioning that Gates speech takes place just two days before the annual speech by Obama in Congress, which is expected to focus extensively on economic issues, including the need to create new jobs.

The statements made by Gates that the U.S. economy will take years to recover reflect on the sales figures of old homes in the U.S. which showed a greater decline after three consecutive increases in by big tax reduction. Sales of old homes fell 16.7% in December, while analysts were expecting a fall below 11.6%. However an investigation from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) for the fourth quarter of 2009 supports the scenario of further recovery in the U.S. economy, and shows a decline in the employment cutting despite the fact that unemployment remains at 10% and many Economists see it rising in the coming months.