...two steps back... - Marginal REVOLUTION

Gerhard Schroeder’s…Social Democratic Party (SPD) said yesterday it would campaign for a new "tax on the rich." The party’s top executive…said its electoral manifesto would include a three-point surcharge, to be added to the top 42 per cent rate of income tax, for anyone earning more than 250,000 Euros. Franz Muentefering, the SPD chairman…made clear it was intended more as a psychological [sic] than as a fiscal step.

The surcharge is intended to "rally disaffected voters." The quotation is from the 27 June Financial Times. Here are some previous posts from the series: "The Earthquake that is Germany."