LOL - So now Brown's grand idea of taxing transactions isn't even on the table - can you say DOA??? -Guru
' Just read the article and it is good, they are talking about the global levy as to what Obama is doing here with the banks but doing it on a global scale and discussing that. The tobin tax seems to be off the table according to the article , so thats good. We can expect that someone might mention it but as of late they made this meeting seem like it was about the tobin tax and its not, its about what Obama just did to our banks.
This also interesting from the Washington Times piece posted above: "The meeting of senior G-7 civil servants, representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board will feed into an IMF report due out in April, a Treasury spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity." Gee I wonder what the IMF report is going to recommend in April? Surely not a FTT -Guru
America has exported many great things...MacDonalds, Starbucks but please keep Mr Baker to yourselves. We already have Gordon Brown, and quite frankly, that is more than enough.:eek:
I had this nightmare a couple of months ago where I 'saw' Gordon Brown elected in to that new EU Presidential role that Rumpuy just filled..it's perfect for him because the selection process is completely undemocratic and he'll be available for work this summer. And then a couple of days later I saw him on TV getting very friendly with Merkel and Sarkozy. Quite unusual for a UK Prime Minister to be so Euro-friendly. You wonder why he is so in favour of the Tobin Tax these days when for so many years he was an open critic of it. Hmmm...
Neither will we. A reminder: If you regularly save your comments to a file on your computer before sending them into these publications, you'll quickly build a nice library of arguments that hit the topic from different angles which can be used repeatedly in future responses. It makes replying to article a very quick task (just copy & paste) & you'll be sending your best arguments each time.
the administration knew the bank's legal argument of selective and punitive taxation, so they called it a fee. Before that they were going to use the term levy but that sounds punitive. Or insurance premium but then they need to set aside the funds for moral hazard insurance. Hence they chose the term fee. Responsibilty term addresses retroactivity problem. The banks will lose this suit if they bring it IMO. Wonder if we can use these legal tactics on a FTT especially if banks were exempted. Progressives want to put speculators out of business and that's the selective part. Speculation is valid so it's not right. The FTT for speculators is not tiny it's huge and kills their business and living. Investors pay more but are not destroyed and same for banks if exempt. So I think we could raise that legal strategy better than the banks. Let's file this idea and that lawyers name and history if we need it. Hopefully we won't.
Why? Don;t the have the valid argument that they have repaid the TARP money with interest and others who didn't are exempt?
Still DeFazio's new bill HR 4191 is titled "Let Wall Street Pay For the Restoration of Main Street". The main body points refer to the 700 billion provided, wall street high profits and bonuses and says wall street owes Main Street. (5) Following their $700,000,000,000 bailout, Wall Street is now enjoying a resurgence in profits and bonuses. (6) A robust economy needs more than Wall Street profits. Main Street America is strengthened by good paying jobs for all Americans, not just Wall Street bankers. (7) To restore Main Street America, a small securities transaction tax on Wall Street should be invested in job creation for Main Street America. (8) A securities transaction tax on Wall Street has a negligible impact on the average investor and pension funds. It also starts with macro economic problems improving on a more TARP- centric earlier version in HR 1068. DeFazio just updated a losing bill to be more topical (to fund jobs, the new hot button need) as he saw TARP was being paid back - and that ship was sailing. His mission creep shows weakness on his logic and position. In any event, he needs another magical revision and IMO he has run out of any logical extension. "Let wall street pay" - okay President Obama is calling Wall Street to pay with the bank fee. Plus, the US bank fee is far more than any other country in the world is assessing on its banks. Much more than that puny 550 million pounds in the UK on on the one-year only banker bonus tax. When France follows suit with the UK - if they actually do - its probably going to be even less in France. Germany is doing nothing but jawbone a FTT. DeFazio's bill HR 4191 can simply not be approved as drafted and I don't see any new draft that will works under the bank fee conditions. His only hope is that the President fails with his bank fee plan. I think Senator Harkin's bill has similar construction and logic and therefore the same failings. I will double check that next.