Some nut on Bloomberg TV refers to this tax as dark pool tax. She is dead wrong! Even IT guy at NYSE thins this is only a dark pool tax. How misleading.
Legislative schedule: I just read that the House doesn't come back in session until Jan 12th and then they go on a Democratic retreat. The Senate isn't slated to return until Jan 18th. Then they have to deal with healthcare after that. Just an FYI Also I read that Obama is going to discuss some deficit reduction measures in his upcoming state of the union address. It'll be interesting to see what ideas he's going to promote. -Guru
I wonder if the House/Senate will wait until the IMF report in April before any serious debate on these bills takes place? I'm kinda curious as to what ideas Obama will have to reduce the deficit. I find it rather interesting that he's made no public comments on the transaction tax issue. I'm starting to believe that he doesn't support it, but cannot admit this publicly, as he will piss off his liberal base and the unions that are advocating for it. Plus, I think it helps that he was a Senator in Illinois, which is a major financial hub in the country. Obama's done several interviews over the year, and I wish just one of these reporters would have asked about his views on the transaction tax. If they did, I'm sure he would have given an answer that really doesn't indicate whether he supports it or not. All this uncertainty really sucks.
No Defense For Tax On Trades. http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=...://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_14052009
It would be well-timed if you sent that FT article/letter also to some of the British economists who published previously in the FT - their science funding has just been cut by 130 million GPB *more* than the 'promised' 180, so Brown is very unpopular in the academe as we speak... those 2-year 'compressed' university courses seem to be such as great idea: I'd love to see Brown's brain operated by one the fast-tracked surgeons! Can you help me fighting the Wikipedia vigilanties..? The Wiki article (as most tax-related) is very biased in favor of the big Gov't: "Debate Opinions are divided between those who applaud [..] Tobin tax [..] and those who claim that the tax would also [..]. 'Applaud' v. 'claim'? How unbiased is that? As a thought for rsikit, the discussion we are having here could be less repetitive, if the first page of this thread referred to the Wikipedia entry on the Tobin tax (Debate section): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax#Debate Anyway, my selective choice of literature survived surprisingly long, considering I put it bravely in the initial section (now it can be found in 'Arguments opposing'), which just 'happens' to be in reverse alphabetical order (*after* those supporting)... most tax-related Wiki articles seem to be generally patrolled by some sort of taxmen. I hesitate to speculate who removed my 'good faith, but unreferenced' edits from the 'Psychopath' entry within hours (!) But we can learn from it one lesson: the entries have to be 'rock solid', i.e. with at least one reference (links to published newspaper article are fine, links to blogs will be removed). And all unreferenced stuff will be removed by the wiki patrol, that's guaranteed - but our thread here has plenty of 'publication quality' stuff... anyway, it's just a thought - Christmas boredom is coming you see... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax#Debate
Put as much anti-tax reference on it as possible. It is not "let wall street oay for main street" is a misnomer!
Don't worry too much about Europe. Read my prior blog articles on it. I realized their strategy for some time now. They are desperate now with the UK and France maybe being added to the credit watch lists, like Greece, Ireland and Iceland. They are scrambling for new tax ideas, already having passed VAT and high income taxes. They forged their EU union to be relevant in a changing world, as Chimerica (China & America as the Germans say) is taking over the world, with BRIC as a sidekick too. So the EU wants to talk us all into a global tax controlled from EU-center Brussels and tie it in with climate control, or the UN and other global efforts. They hosted the climate conference in Copenhagan and they are upset that nothing happened, and that they were left out by Chimerica, Brazil, India and others in the last minute (no) deal making. They can rant all they want now about banker bonuses and populist outbursts to cover up their own over-socialist spending failings. No way no how will the IMF report say yes to a Tobin Tax. That post last week with the Tobin Tax preliminary IMF findings on a Tobin Tax is very compelling (for a no). The only argument in that report that is attractive to government (only) is giving governments control over the financial marktes. That is dangerous and wrong, but it may be attractive to a government in serious decline and facing run away budget deficits that they can do little about. If they cut spending, they lose votes. If they raise taxes, they botch up their economies even more. We are all at this tipping point now. The Euro is strong for now, but it could change over the coming years. Europe has the same problems as the US and maybe even bigger ones. They have more socialist spending and dictates on business and more legacy cost problems too with an even more aging population. Plus clashes with immigration. Our Washington wizards are too smart to fall into this Euro spell. President Obama graciously accepted their Euro Peace Prize but our President, Secretary Geithner and Congressional leadership are not drinking EU cool-aid. Where are those Nato troops for Afghanistan? Where are the votes to sanction Iran? Let's get the UK back on track with a Tory victory in spring and then Sarkozy will start talking pro-Bush policy stuff again. Remember, he used to be Sarko the American. He goes with the power moves of the day. The whole world won't easily sign yes to climate control and they won't sign for a transaction tax either. Asia will do what it wants on both fronts and they are very happy to take over American leadership in finance. We are going to win this financial-transaction tax debate. The more Europe rants and raves, the weaker they are on this issue. They are still just trying to rally UK voters to support Brown.
Comments from hopefully not the future of America: "Perhaps Vincent Carroll can try to explain how this kind of trading benefits anyone outside of those trying to manipulate the market." (it's all market manipulation) "In fact it will not suppress trades at all....If a trader sees an opportunity to make millions, thousands, or merely hundreds in profits, a small transaction tax would provide no reason to sit on the sidelines, unless one is into gratuitous self-spite." (every trade makes millions of dollars or a million percent)
i am a trader outside the US. the almost only thing we admire of the US is the efficiency of your markets. All this shit started out in the least efficient of markets, ie housing and over the counter markets, and half of the problem later on was related with the problems of a sensible mark to market, so i would think the US would say if only those markets were as efficient as our listed trades it wouldve been great, but no, let's screw up the efficient stuff now?! wow, i am watching with interest and pretty sure we will not partake in that madness, i can see though that i will have to switch off my US an UK trading pretty soon. oh well, i guess there are a lot of great smaller markets, but it's sad too see such a great country destroy itself by such irrational actions.