Here's something wild: sky-high long-term capital gains taxes? They trap investors in their winners. Think about it—same way mortgage rates chain homeowners to properties they'd otherwise ditch.

Sure, sounds sweet for certain stock prices and fund managers riding the locked-in wave. But zoom out? Absolute disaster for market liquidity. Dead money sitting still. No rotation, no fresh capital flows, no healthy churn.

When selling triggers a tax sledgehammer, people just… don't. They hold. Forever. Market gets stagnant, pricing efficiency goes out the window. It's not strategy at that point—it's a cage.