Intertubes

My comments are being eaten in the blogosphere. Perhaps I'm being blocked but I don't think so. Anyhow I'll save/copy my mental regurgitations here so they don't simply vanish into the aether.

commenter Darryl FKA Ron:

[The return to capital tax incentives created by a dividends tax credit equal to the lesser of the issuers taxes paid on the dividends amount or the full amount of ordinary income taxes owed on the dividends by its recipient was an old idea going back to 1913 until the Republicans rescinded it in 1954. During the New Deal era this incentive to hold rather than trade speculatively or sell out to the first good proffer that beat the market was enhanced temporarily by higher capital gains tax rates and longer holding term requirements for discounting. 

First two LBOs happened in 1955, the year after the dividends tax credit was permanently (had been done 1936-1939, before Congress understood why it was instituted with the income tax in 1913) rescinded.]