Just to be clear; nobody will exempt from its consequences. With lower volume, bid and ask spreads will result in a less efficient market and you are less likely to get as good of a fill as you would today. IRA or not.
I don't think there's going to be vocal Republican opposition until if/when the idea gets more support in the Democratic party. Despite our focus on these 2 bills (the current HR and the upcoming Senate version), there really hasn't been even moderate vocal support in the Democratic party for it. With Carolyn Maloney's "Dear Colleague" letter currently circulating around the Democratic party condemning the tax, the Republicans can just watch the Democrats fight between themselves for a while. With that said, we should still keep the tough fight going whenever & wherever this idea pops up, but remember, our eventual goal is to get the volume down to zero so we can all get along with our trading businesses. I don't even want to think about all the profits I've bypassed from missed trades due to time spent working on this issue via phone, email, and one-on-one discussions. Considering, the tax would eliminate our livelihoods though, it's money well spent and will increase in amount going forward as conditions warrant.
Dem opponents round up votes against stock tax By Silla Brush - 12/07/09 12:35 PM ET http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...em-opponents-round-up-votes-against-stock-tax ...........at least 20 Democrat and Republican supporters.
I have the idea that this bill was maid to make you lose sight of the real battle, and it's COP15... COP15 = Yalta
Has anyone tried to quantify what the effect might be in the equities that main street investors are most likely to buy? e.g. what might S&P 500 stocks' spreads become, and how much extra would this cost a self-directed investor over his average hold time? Another thing to factor in is the claimed benefit from lower volatility in commodities. If it's sold to constituents with the comforting claim "this will cost you an extra $10 every time you and your wife sit down and buy a hundred shares of IBM, but as a benefit you will never see $4/gallon gasoline again", it's hard to argue with that.
Very good to hear! I've already written my rep asking her to consider supporting the letter referenced in this article. Hopefully she reads it and agrees. I hope everyone here either has or plans on writing their reps as well.
Senator Charles Schumer (D, NY) has come out strongly against the tax and, for the time being, appears to be standing his ground. If he doesn't change his mind, this will never even come to a vote in the Senate. Until this tax is declared dead, keep signing petitions and contacting you representatives. If we let our guard down, we could be in for an unpleasant surprise.
I just added my below Comment and hopefully they will publish it soon. Kudos to Rep. Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.). He is exactly right about a financial-transaction tax being a very bad idea. Like Secretary Geithner, they both correctly see how this shotgun-approach transaction tax will most hurt ordinary every day American investors living on Main Street. The outlier and few sponsors of these transaction tax bills in the House and Senate have demonstrated anger towards Wall Street big banks and big bonus recipients, but there are far less harmful ways to "make them pay." Secretary Geithner is working with banks to have TARP-banks pay bonuses in stock rather than cash (with the government collecting their tax share of those bonuses fully in cash), to repay TARP, to assess a rifle-approach bank levy, and to help stimulate lending and related-jobs. The transaction tax bills will surely lose hundreds of thousands of financial service and trading industry jobs (more on Main Street than Wall Street), which will lead to millions of job losses in other industries that count financial services as their best customer - technology hardware and software, IT, staffing, law, accounting, consulting and more. A transaction tax will decimate New York City, Chicago and hurt Silicon Valley, Boston and many other leading financial and technology centers in the US. Most of all, when everyone goes to the market to sell or buy any instrument (stock, commodity, or future) they will only have access to a government-influenced inefficient price and not up-to-the minute fair pricing offered by todayâs speculator market-makers (traders). The bill sponsors think they can give proper exemptions for retirement plans and small investors, but those exemptions are a mirage and wonât work. The poorly-priced markets will have higher or lower prices and that will cost every investor buyer or seller of every kind. I am surprised at Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a leading sponsor of the Senate bill for a transaction tax. How will Iowa farmers successfully hedge their farm products in the markets if the market pricing is inefficient and poor (after his bill kills the speculators who provide that pricing)? Please donât let the angry bill sponsors - who donât even have any financial service sectors in their districts - use ignorance and emotional anger to destroy the worldâs best financial services industry and financial markets proudly here at home in America! Letâs not ship those jobs to China too (an odd Communist yet heavily-hands-off-capitalist country). Whatâs even odder is that these bill sponsors have the nerve or ignorance to call them job creation bills.
Drudge added today's cnsnews.com story to his page along with a picture of Pelosi. That article will get much more visibility now.
I read an interested expose on Speaker Pelosi in New York Magazine (month old issue). The article pointed out that the Speakerâs strengths include counting votes, money-raising (in rich Silicon Valley, her district) and dolling out campaign funds to other candidates in her sphere of influence in return for loyalty on votes. I recall at one point, Speaker Pelosi had to rein in an unruly Congressman who would not listen to her reason, so she took the fight directly to that Congressmanâs donors in his home community. Overnight, that Congressman changed his tune to fall in line with Speaker Pelosi. Why donât we use some of this same medicine on Speaker Pelosi, itâs something she will understand and respect. Silicon Valley donors are the Speakerâs money lifeline. The financial services industry needs to tell Silicon Valley that it will buy from EU and Asian vendors unless Silicon Valley communicates its interests in a viable U.S.-based financial services industry to Speaker Pelosi. Maybe some Silicon Valley tech companies want to start selling their stock on iTunes, but that is not feasible yet. I recall some venture capitalists tried that approach a decade ago using peer to peer IPOs cutting out investment bankers. Mr. Pelosi, the Speakerâs husband is a significant player in the Silicon Valley venture capital industry. Sounds like dirty pool, but I think this is how the power game is played in DC and we canât afford to be ignorant of the tactics used. Our small business traders canât do much other than buying Lenovos rather than Dell computers. We need the Wall Street trade associations to help out here. Speaker Pelosi and other Congressman from CA (some who sponsor DeFazio's House bill) should understand that most Main Street small-business traders live in CA and they are hurting them badly with this tax. See an excerpt of our Petition http://www.rallycongress.com/greentradertax-traders-association1/ report below on state actions. 18% are from CA and the next biggest state is Florida with 9%, closely followed by Texas and New York. I've been saying all along that traders don't live only on Wall Street or in Chicago, they live mostly on Main Street in CA! Keep signing the Petition and the more in CA the better. GreenTraderTax Traders Association Membership (2,216) By State Order by: State or Total Table: GreenTraderTax Traders Association membership by state.State Members Percent of Total No State (): 24 Listing highest ones only California: 393 17.7% Florida: 207 9.3% New York: 183 8.3% Texas: 176 7.9% Illinois: 95 4.3%