There is a meeting of the G7 Finance ministers taking place Friday and Saturday in Iqaluit (Canada). According to this Britain and France are going to push the idea of creating a huge fund to act as a buffer most likely financed by a "Tobin Tax." "Mr. Darling was more open to Mr. Flaherty's capital-requirement proposals, but the British minister is coming to Iqaluit with his own proposal: A formal resolution procedure, or âliving will,â as he calls it, for dealing with bank collapses in advance, with funds and mechanisms ready as a de facto insurance system. The European governments are bringing a proposal to reinforce the banking system by creating a huge fund to act as a buffer to protect against future crises and fund bailouts. It would likely get its funds from an international transaction tax of a small fraction of a per cent on each trade (sometimes known as a âTobin Tax,â after its inventor). That idea, once obscure and unlikely, was endorsed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in December, and has been backed enthusiastically by the French and German governments. But both Canadians and Americans have given it the cold shoulder, although former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who has become an influential figure in the White House, has spoken in its favour. Both Mr. Darling and Ms. Lagarde said they would push the idea in Iqaluit." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-competing-national-interests/article1456934/ To me this sounds like the insurance type fund that everyone is talking about and I don't think it would be financed by a tobin tax but by a direct levy on the banks themselves.. -Guru
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...oGk3QOo8gZljDQhDQ&sig2=9RK22qUxawvHb1utShXZGA Geithner will be attending the G7 meetings this weekend to represent the U.S. He will once again tell these douche bags to shove their Tobin tax idea up their asses. I love how they try to spin this, saying that Volker is now an influential figure in the White House, and has spoken in it's favor, when all he has said about a transaction tax is that it should possibly be studied. Volker is not the Treasury Secretary, and will not be attending the meetings this weekend. I love how these Euro douche bags try spinning a story to try and gain support for something that won't be happening, no matter how much they try embellishing it.
Good find. Timmy will set them straight To me when you read between the lines it sounds like even the Europeans know a Tobin Tax ain't going to happen. Also the last published quote I saw from Volcker I saw regarding a FTT was that he was opposed to it... -Guru
Article on misc reforms including trans tax, unlikely says O'Shaughnessy of Raymond James. msnbc.msn.com/id/35257306/ns/business-businessweekcom/
Wondering why some European leaders are still proposing a FTT? Do they believe in taxing most transactions in general - like VAT (value added tax) and gas taxes which are far higher in the EU than in the US? VAT is an income/sales tax at each stage of production and distribution. Why can't governments be less greedy and just wait for final sales taxes as currently exists in the US? Very high gas taxes in Europe are intended to advocate conservation and encourage public transportation like high-speed rail. It makes no sense to have a sales or VAT-type tax on financial-transactions. It makes no sense to apply the concept of conservation to financial-transactions, they do not pollute the environment. The UK has their stamp-duty tax on selective stock transactions - exempting banks - and Americans don't want the government taxing their money itself. That concept helped launch the Boston Tea Party and led to the American revolution - from undue over-reach taxation without representation. We tried a FTT in the US and it was rejected it after it dampered growth. Tax income, real estate, estates, but not the movement and exchange of money itself - that's outragious over reach and it's unfair. If governemnt is so big, out of management-control, wasteful, and run-away an indication of that is when it proposes taxing money itself, the life-blood of our economy. Tell the deficit-desperate Europeans to cut taxes and spending and not to corrupt America and Canada with their high-tax everything in site-ways. Should America be importing high tax and spending ideas from Europe? FTT is not a quirky tax on Wall Street it's the fault-line of an outragious over reach and unjustified tax on the entire American people - who are all effected by the transfer of money. From iPhone.
There is also Mervyn King in Iqaluit on our side. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/b...yn-king-and-pals-go-dogsledding-14669888.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100....html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond Officials are debating whether a tax on financial-market transactions, bonuses, or dividends would be the best instrument.
As recent as 28 January, 2010 (Davos) Stephen Harper, Canadian PM, states Canada's position: http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2010muskoka/harper-davos.html He summarises: "So, to be clear, through the G20, we will be encouraging strengthened financial sector regulation and improved coordination between regulators. But Canada will not go down the path of excessive, arbitrary or punitive regulation of its financial sector. Canada has a well-regulated, free-market economy with a private financial sector of enormous strength. We intend to build on that advantage. We intend to see the financial sector in Canada grow. And we intend Canada's global position in that industry to get stronger yet in the future. "