From the above piece: A âtransactionâ tax on stock trades. This last prospect has faded, I am told, but Obama insiders havenât stopped touting it around town. Since it would be applied to brokers â and to hedge fund transactions â it is attractive politically. It would not be a direct tax on individuals or families, but would allow Obama to go after unpopular Wall Street traders. The bank-transaction tax has the same populist appeal. It's good to know that the transaction tax is 'fading.' It's crazy the article says this is not a direct tax on individuals or families - thats bs - it's a direct tax on every investor in this country (big or small). -Guru
By the way, a friend-of-a-friend on the Joint Tax Committee in Congress told me his colleagues working to score (for CBO) a financial-transaction tax thought the tax was a bad idea.
Robert, Are you saying the CBO is going to be publishing a 'score' for the transaction tax? That should be interesting. I really think this issue is pretty much dead and the admin will go ahead with a direct tax on the banks (if anything)... -Guru
I think that tax even on bankers is not a good idea. Like many said, raising taxes is not a good idea at times like this. Gov should of had some regulations in place to keep some of the bad things from happening. If we dont agree with transaction tax, should also stand firm and not agree with any other financial taxes, including bonuses. I must be misinformed.
"The Tsunami Facing The Transaction Tax" http://www.securitiesindustry.com/monday_monitor/-24472-1.html?zkPrintable=true -Guru
I havenât heard anything from the Obama camp other than comments by anonymous officials and a press secretary who canât give a straight answer. Until I see something more substantial I consider it all noise or idle speculation. So I think itâs important to be aware of the politics of all the players involved until we know for certain which scenario will play out. The worst thing would be to be caught unprepared at the last moment in case something unexpected was to happen. That being said, I agree that the IMF report will be very important and that Congress will wait for that report before pushing ahead on 4191. Only zealots like DeFazio would still push for the tax if the report says that it would not be feasible. The moderates will just blame the IMF for the failure of the legislation and the tax will die in committee. And if Obama comes out clearly against it in the meantime then it doesn't bode well for it either.
Sorry, I can't say anything conclusive on the Joint Tax Committee and CBO. I only spoke briefly and unofficially with a young friend of a family friend over the holidays. I think he is new to that job and it's water cooler talk. I did not ask him detailed questions as that seemed inappropriate. He did mention that his group does not use macro economics in scoring which is hard to accept for me. A Fin Transaction Tax will dry up trading and how can you not factor that into scoring?
This is when we notify the author of the story of the inaccuracy to prevent future stories with the same viewpoint from being written & from being put forth in press interviews where he is a guest. I've already written him as I do most of the authors of these articles. More emails to him are encouraged. His email address link is right in the middle of the article. Tell him why the transaction tax is a main street tax.
We aren't part of Wall Street; we're part of Main Street. Wall Street doesn't look out for us. If the public wants its pound of flesh, then feed them the bankers. They created the securitization mess; they deserve it. They can survive a tax on bonuses. We can't survive a transactions tax.