The Boston Globe - 31.08.2019

AUGUST 31, 2019 9

25

THEBOSTONGLOBE

Index of publicly traded companies in Massachusetts

Major US stock indexes ended little changed Friday after a
listless day of trading ahead of the Labor Day holiday week-
end capped a solid week of gains for the market. A late-af-
ternoon flurry of buying gave the S&P 500 its third straight
gain. The benchmark index also snapped a string of four
consecutive weekly losses. Even so, the market closed out
August with its second monthly decline this year, after May.
‘‘Going into a holiday weekend you just have three days
here where you’re not going to be able to reposition, so peo-
ple are probably taking some profits and squaring their
books ahead of the weekend,’’ said Sameer Samana, senior
global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Insti-
tute. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Markets

Stocks quiet heading into holiday

DOW JONES industrial average

NASDAQ Composite index

S&P 500 index

Globe 25 index

SOURCE:BloombergNews

By Jeff Stein

WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The

White House is still considering

a plan to bypass Congress to en-

act a tax cut on capital gains,

according to a senior adminis-

tration official, although Presi-

dent Trump appeared to rule

the idea out last week and ex-

pressed concern that it could be

perceived as ‘‘elitist.’’

On Friday, Trump tweeted

about the proposal to unilater-

ally index capital gains to infla-

tion, responding to an op-ed

backing the idea with the com-

ment. He asked: ‘‘An idea liked

by many?’’

A White House spokesman

declined a request for clarifica-

tion on the meaning of the pres-

ident’s tweet. Trump also

retweeted an op-ed, authored

by Senator Ted Cruz, Republi-

can of Texas, and anti-tax advo-

cate Grover Norquist, pushing

the administration to back the

plan to index capital gains to in-

flation.

The comments add to the

confusion surrounding the

Trump administration’s posi-

tion on the capital gains pro-

posal and his tax plans more

generally. Last week, Trump ap-

peared to confirm that indexing

capital gains to inflation could

be done without the approval of

Congress, telling reporters:

‘‘Many people like indexing,

and it could be done very sim-

ply. It could be done directly by

me.’’

But the next day, Trump ap-

peared to back down, telling re-

porters: ‘‘I’ve studied indexing

for a long time and I think it

willbeperceived—ifIdoit—

as somewhat elitist. I don’t

want to do that... I think in-

dexing is really probably better

for the upper-income groups.’’

The capital gains tax cut

would let investors who are sell-

ing assets, like a stock or a

home, use the inflation-adjust-

ed value of their initial pur-

chase when making the sale.

The higher initial price would

reduce the taxable income from

their sale of the asset, reducing

the amount they pay in taxes.

The Trump administration

is looking to bolster the econo-

my amid fears of a slowdown

from the trade war with China.

But a number of economists

have argued the capital gains

tax cut would do little to stimu-

late new spending or generate

additional growth, because it

primarily would cut the

amount that rich people pay in

taxes. Tax cuts for the poor or

middle class tend to have great-

er stimulative effects, because

those groups spend the money,

boosting economic activity.

A report by the Center on

Budget and Policy Priorities, a

left-leaning think tank, found

that 86 percent of the benefits

of indexing capital gains to in-

flation would flow to the richest

1 percent of Americans.

Last week, Trump also said

he was considering a payroll tax

cut — which would help more

middle class workers — and

then opposed the idea the next

day. And then later in the week

he promised a big middle class

tax cut if Republicans retook

the House of Representatives

next year, but he hasn’t ex-

plained how he would do it.

The push from the presi-

dent’s allies may revive the cap-

ital gains proposal. The plan

has been backed by Larry Kud-

low, the president’s top eco-

nomic adviser, and Russell

Vought, acting director of the

White House Office of Manage-

ment and Budget.

It is also not clear whether

the administration has the legal

authority to pull off such a ma-

neuver on its own. In 1992, dur-

ing George H.W. Bush’s admin-

istration, the Department of

Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel

said in a memo that ‘‘Treasury

does not have legal authority to

index capital gains for inflation

by means of regulation.’’

It is also unclear what kinds

of assets would be subject to the

change.

White House officials still mulling tax cut

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO —

Google will pay $150 million

to $200 million to settle a com-

plaint with the Federal Trade

Commission over how it treats

information from children on

its YouTube video site, accord-

ing to a published report Fri-

day.

The FTC has reportedly

been investigating YouTube

for violating a law designed to

protect kids online. Politico

said the FTC voted, 3-2, to ap-

prove the fine to settle the

case. The report said the mat-

ter now goes to the Justice De-

partment for review.

Federal law typically re-

quires parental consent before

online services can collect in-

formation about children un-

der 13.

The FTC’s investigation in-

to YouTube reportedly looked

into how YouTube collects da-

ta to serve personalized ads.

The company says the service

is intended for people ages 13

and older, but it also has many

popular kids-focused video

channels.

The FTC and Google de-

clined to comment.

YouTube has a separate app

for kids, and it launched a

website version of YouTube

Kids this week. The site asks

kids to get parental consent to

start viewing and offers a sim-

ple math problem as a way to

gauge whether the person un-

locking the website is really

an adult. YouTube says it

doesn’t target ads to individu-

als’ interests on its kids ser-

vice.

The FTC’s scrutiny of You-

Tube comes as Google and

other big tech companies are

under the microscope for the

way they sell and store cus-

tomers’ personal information.

Facebook recently agreed to

pay $5 billion to settle privacy

charges.

But the settlement against

YouTube may not go far

enough for many children’s

privacy advocates. The Center

for Digital Democracy, a priva-

cy advocacy group, said the re-

ported amount against You-

Tube is ‘‘woefully low.’’

Senator Ed Markey, a Mas-

sachusetts Democrat who

helped write the children’s pri-

vacy law, said he was disap-

pointed.

‘‘Once again, this FTC ap-

pears to have let a powerful

company off the hook with a

nominal fine for violating us-

ers’ privacy online,’’ he said in

a statement.

Google will pay $150m over YouTube violations

DETROIT — The US Envi-

ronmental Protection Agency

is making Volkswagen Group

correct fuel economy labels for

about 98,000 gasoline-pow-

ered vehicles.

The revisions of about one

mile per gallon cover VWs as

well as affiliated brands Audi,

Porsche, and Bentley. All are

from the 2013 through 2017

model years.

The EPA said Friday that it

investigated the gas vehicles

after finding that VW cheated

on diesel emissions in 2015.

The agency and the Califor-

nia Air Resources Board found

that transmission software on

the gas vehicles made them

shift differently during govern-

ment lab tests on treadmills so

they got better mileage and

polluted less than when they

were on the road.

The software was on about

1 million vehicles, but only

98,000 were found to have

lower mileage than stated on

EPA window stickers, accord-

ing to an EPA statement.

VW Group said it also set-

tled lawsuits by owners and

will reimburse them for over-

stated mileage. Under the set-

tlement, valued at $96.5 mil-

lion, owners will get payments

ranging from $5.40 to $24.

for each month that they have

owned or leased the vehicles.

Owners will be notified

about their rights and options

under the settlement, and

eventually they will have to

submit a claim to be compen-

sated, VW said in a statement.

The settlement still needs to

be approved by a judge.

Models included in the

mileage revisions can be found

at https://www.epa.gov/recalls/

fuel-economy-label-updates.

In September 2015, the

EPA discovered that VW had

installed software on nearly

600,000 diesel vehicles that

turned pollution controls on

during government tests and

shut them off while the vehi-

cles were on the road.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

EPA tells VW to

correct 98,

mileage labels

Aaron Hernandez & Football Inc.

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