Market Needs Tax-Cut Extension: Gartman

The government should extend the Bush tax cuts to put money to work and help share prices, Dennis Gartman, founder of The Gartman Letter, told CNBC Wednesday.

“An extension of the Bush tax cuts would be phenomenally bullish,” Gartman said.

The tax cuts put in place under the Bush Administration are to end in 2010.

The top marginal income-tax rate is set to increase on the first day of 2011 to 39.6 percent from 35 percent.

The phase-out of itemized deductions will lift that, effectively, to 40.8 percent.

In 2013, the 3.8 percent Obama health-care tax on investment income will kick in, making the top rate 44.6 percent.

Click on the video above to watch Dennis Gartman's interview

Gartman said that confusion rather than optimism is determining economic activity in the US.

“I think it’s the confusion as to what will a left-of-center Obama administration do to publicly held corporations, even privately held corporations, over the course of the next several months," he said.

"Because of that confusion, the propensity on the part of corporate managers’ to put this excess cash to work is relatively limited.”