Gold, Silver And The Melania Coin January 6, 2026 I can’t account for the price of a Melania coin (just under 14 cents) . . . or explain what one actually is (I have no idea, really) . . . or why people paid as much as $8.48 for each less than a year ago. Losing 98% in 10 months is impressive. On the other hand, this article about the National Debt . . . (which fell steadily as a proportion of GDP from 1946 until Ronald Reagan went overboard cutting taxes on the rich and sent it heading back up, with subsequent giant assists from George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump) . . . may explain why the prices of gold, silver (and copper, among others) reach new highs more or less daily. And why our shares of HYMC, now up about 12-fold, may (possibly!) have a lot further to run. More to the point, it may help to explain why we all should favor tax hikes of the type that the Patriotic Millionaires and others have been proposing. Not to pay off the $38 trillion debt — there’s no need to do that — but to get it again growing slower in most years than the economy as a whole, as it did from 1946 through 1981. Things like: > Ending the “stepped-up basis at death” and other tax loopholes that make the estate tax a joke. > Raising the rate on estates above $100 million; higher still above $1 billion and $10 billion. > Ending, finally, the carried interest loophole. > Taxing income from wealth at the same rate as income from work (on income above, say, $1 million) — the Equal Tax Act — though I would keep the Qualified Small Business Stock exemption that incentivizes innovation.* > Raising the rate to 45% (say) on personal income above $10 million. > Raising the corporate rate from its current 21% to perhaps 26%. > Adequately funding the IRS to collect those taxes. > Imposing a voluntary corporate tax surcharge — like this — that would only begin to kick in if the corporation’s highest paid employee (typically, the CEO) makes more than 50 times as much as her median employee . . . and steepen gradually to 5% when top total compensation exceeded 1,000 times the median. Voluntary, because the board of directors could avoid it by choosing to raise median pay and/or reduce CEO pay if they felt it was in the best interest of the shareholders. If inequality has become a problem in America (and does anyone think it has not?), this would be a nice little way to lean against it. None of this would affect 99% of taxpayers (or voters).** Are you in? *To make tougher capital gains treatment more palatable, we should perhaps consider netting out inflation in calculating taxable gains. So if you had bought something for $1,000,000 40 years ago and sold it now for $2,500,000, you’d have no tax to pay, since — after inflation — you’d actually have lost money. Now that virtually all tax preparation is computerized, the logistics of the calculations might not be difficult. **To the 1% who are affected, the IRS should send heartfelt congratulations on their success and the nation’s sincere thanks for their badly needed tax revenue.