Mitt Romney Says a Billionaire Tax Will Trigger Demand for These 2 Assets — Get in Now Before the Super-rich Swarm

Romney’s main concern is spiking inflation.

But when it comes to government spending, the question on many investors’ minds is a simple one: “How do I make money from it?”

And in that context, Romney had some interesting things to say that might be worth paying attention to.

After all, Romney made much of his fortune through private equity firm Bain Capital, whose funds own shares in companies like Amazon and Alphabet.

But he didn’t mention tech stocks.

Instead, Romney talked about how Biden’s proposed tax on billionaires — to help pay for trillions of dollars of spending — would boost the demand for two specific asset classes: farms and fine art.

Let’s take a quick look at these often overlooked investment options.

Farmland

It’s no secret that the ultra-wealthy love farms.

Bill Gates — the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of $136 billion — is the largest private farmland owner in the U.S.

And Romney expects more fat-cats to plow into the space.

“These multibillionaires are gonna look and say, ‘I don’t want to invest in the stock market, because as that goes up, I gotta get taxed,” Romney said.

“So maybe I will instead invest in a ranch or in paintings or things that don’t build jobs and create a stronger economy.”

It’s easy to see the appeal of farmland: It is intrinsically valuable and has little correlation with the ups and downs of the stock market.

And even in a hyperinflationary environment, people still need to eat.

Between 1992 and 2020, farmland returned an average of 11 per cent per year. Over the same time frame, the S&P 500 returned only 8 per cent.

These days, you don’t need to be a multibillionaire to get a piece of the action. Investors can gain exposure to farmland through publicly traded real estate investment trusts like Farmland Partners and Gladstone Land Corporation, or by using an ETF like iShares MSCI Global Agriculture Producers ETF or the VanEck Agribusiness ETF.

Artwork

Romney also mentioned paintings, which might be a little tough to understand.

Companies make profits. Farmland produces crops. But what can fine art deliver?

Well, it provides the one thing that matters most to investors: market-thumping returns.

Contemporary artwork has already outperformed the S&P 500 by a commanding 174 per cent over the past 25 years, according to the Citi Global Art Market chart.