1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today

No one needs to get worked up over this Robin Hood tax garbage. This is not going anywhere!!! As with a Tobin Tax, it would need unanimous global support to enact, in addition to approval from each countries respective lawmakers. It's a non-issue!!! This Robin Hood crap is just another desperate attempt by the left to get their voices heard on an issue that their not going to win. These idiots think that by having celebrities endorse this, it will turn the tide, and force countries like the U.S., Canada, Russia, etc.... to change their views and force the banks, (and eventually traders) to pay this idiotic tax. NOT HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!

 

it will pass only in Europe, but not here. Despite our problems, this is still the greatest country in the world, the last bastion of human hope and endeavour.

 

Just submitted this Comment on those earlier links.

The campaigners learned that a financial-transaction tax falls on the middle-class, so they are refocusing their attack on the villains of the moment, banks. The G-20 is planning a bank levy and they want to carefully deal with banks while we face Meltdown 2.0 with PIGS, CA, NY, and NJ facing Lehman-type meltdowns and bailout needs. No way will governments allow celebrities to help charities mess with their national (“-ized”) banks.

The campaigners also understand the problem of national governments not wanting their tax base paid to a global charity cause directly, so they try a US Congressman DeFazio-type trick, to say half for national governments and the other half for their global causes. They are kidding themselves as national governments face incredible outrage over bailouts and Europe is bailing out Greece this week. Governments need all taxes raised from banks to pay back bailouts and fund future bailout or wind-down needs. If there will ever be a global tax, it needs to be coordinated through the G-20 and IMF first. Europe is struggling with a federal type approach to PIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain - meltdowns and bailouts. Like progressives in America, these liberal causes are way jumping the gun ahead of the line and will be considered a scorn in the side of political officials.

Funny Robin Hood wants to steal from financial-institutions and then promise to give half the loot to the government. If there is going to be funding for climate control and damage it must go through the climate conferences and proper protocol – not through Madonna-type celebrities.

These past few weeks, I've been thinking that Robin Hood was a crook and many executives of charities have histories of being crooked too - pocketing many contributions for themselves, executives and fringe benefits. Think UN Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq before the war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme.

Wall Street has a Robin Hood Foundation and they have successfully raised and personally donated hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money for charity over the years. It doesn't need to be a tax for them to donate.

How about celebrities following suit with donations of dollars rather than free promotions (music videos and performances) which also sell their own wares for profits - which they usually don't donate as well? Celebrities are known tax evaders too, and it would help the tax-base in many countries like the UK, France and Germany if they would move back home from Monte Carlo and other tax havens. Or how about reporting hidden Swiss bank accounts too? Countless American celebrities living in the UK have avoided income taxes on offshore accounts. Only last year did the UK require a 30,000 pound flat tax for offshore accounts, otherwise they are taxed now too. That is a small price to pay for some very rich celebrities camping out in the UK and avoiding much higher taxes - and speaking loudly about Robin-Hooding banks. Even world famous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde did not hail from a castle in the English countryside.

Remember last year that one most famous American celebrity living in the UK said that all musicians should not pay taxes and she ranted about the London congestion tax from her Rolls Royce.

Since when is Robin Hood a celebrity? Yes, they can play the part in a movie, but not in real life too.

 

Updated version, and just gave it to my editor for my blog tomorrow. She will whittle it down to size. Any ideas for it?

Global charities are teaming with celebrities and economists to promote a Robin Hood tax on banks.

A new campaign has launched tonight and here’s the initial press from London.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...-raise-pound-250bn-a-year-to-fight-poverty.do
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...play-my-part-in-the-great-Robin-Hood-Tax.html

Since when do charities and celebrities set tax policy? Churches already raise lots of money, but there is supposed to be a clear “separation of church and state” (tax policy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state .

When you think of celebrities and taxes the first thing that comes to mind is tax evasion not paying higher taxes. Just Google “celebrities and taxes” and see for yourself http://www.google.com/search?q=cele...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a .

So why is this oddball team proposing a Robin Hood – wasn’t he a crook – financial-transaction tax at this time?

The financial-transaction tax has been debated at-length in the UK, US, Europe, IMF and G-20 and recent media reports indicate its all but dead world-wide at this time. Government leaders around the world, including Secretary Geithner in the US have declared that it’s an industry-destroying tax that falls mostly (and unfairly) on the middle-class.

Sweden tried a financial-transaction tax and its markets crashed over night and listing and new business moved to London. They quickly reversed their mistake and are now taking the lead in Europe to prevent governments from this same tragic mistake. A financial-transaction tax will chase transactions to Switzerland and Asia and London City will loose hundreds of thousands of jobs and this will be the straw that breaks the UK’s financial back. Do you seriously want to take tax lessons from celebrities?

The celebrity/charity team learned of these problems with the financial-transaction tax – how it falls on the middle-class investor – and refocused their attack on the villains of the moment, big banks. But the reporting above indicates their ideas make no sense. “The “Robin Hood Tax” would not be levied on banks' transactions with high-street customers, but on those between financial institutions.” This approach sounds very unworkable in the real world. It’s almost impossible to separate the two.

The G-20 is putting the finishing touches on its joint-consensus decision to implement an insurance-type levy on banks. They are very sensitive to carefully dealing with banks as they were expecting – what happened this week with - Meltdown 2.0 with PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) facing Lehman/AIG-type Meltdowns 1.0. There is simply no way that governments can afford to allow celebrities and charities to mess-up their national (going on nationalized with bailouts) banks. Governments are trying to carefully balance fragile bank recoveries, with arranging for taxpayers to be paid back for (despised) bailouts, with assuaging populist-political forces, and laying the ground work for a hoped for sustainable recovery. That is a very difficult job.

At the same time, we understand that charities are hurting as much as anyone else during this severe global recession. Their donations have dropped significantly. We call on celebrities to donate more of their money and profits to charity and not just offer to do free fund raising performances.

The celebrity/charity campaigners also understand the problem of national governments not wanting their national tax-base tapped by global charitable-causes directly, so they revised their pitch as follows. They now propose giving half of the tax booty to national governments and the other half directly to their own charitable-causes directly.

The world has never agreed to a global tax before, let alone directly to politically-tinged social causes (loved by some taxpayers but unloved by other taxpayers). The world is working on global issues like climate-control and funding those efforts but that is organized already through global frameworks like Copenhagen 2009. Charities were dismayed in Copenhagen and now they are trying to grab at the tax chains in a jump the queue fashion.

Most taxpayers in America and the UK will cry outrageous foul over their attempt to usher in a new global tax regime. Brits are not even ready to turn over tax sovereignty to the EU yet let alone the world?

It’s a slippery slope when it comes to taxes. 0.05% now, when it was 0.25% just a month ago and will surely grow to a much higher rate later on. That’s how taxes work. The banks only now and later on all financial-transactions, as was their case a month ago.

Europe is now facing a great challenge in dealing with Meltdown 2.0 issues in Greece this week. Pundits say it will test the Euro itself. Governments need complete control and consensus over bank taxes and they are not turning over their (far too important) jobs to charities and celebrities. If there will ever be a global tax (decades from now), it will need to be coordinated through the G-20, IMF and other world bodies; not an ad-hoc group of charities and celebrities.

Can celebrities and charities be trusted with global tax monies anyway? Remember, their campaign mascot Robin Hood was a crook, that doesn’t endear the public trust. See that Google link above on “charities and taxes” and read the many stories of tax cheating by celebrities. Charities don’t have a great tax track record either. Read the Wikipedia page on the UN Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq before the war at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme. Many charities have been busted for inappropriately using their tax-deductible status to carry on business-like for profit activities too. Executives have been busted for bribes, lavish expense accounts, conflicts of interest, unaccounted for funds and much more.

On the other hand, Wall Street has a highly-successful and respected “Robin Hood Foundation” http://www.robinhood.org/home.aspx. Is the Robin Hood tax stealing that name too? Wall Street’s Robin Hood Foundation has successfully raised and personally donated hundreds of millions of dollars of their own (banker-generated) money for charity over the years. They did not need to be taxed to pay it either. As I walk the streets, parks, museums and theaters of my beloved New York City, I see plaque-after-plaque of “donated by x (Wall Streeter)”, while I pay a fortune to celebrities to watch them perform.

Why don’t highly-successful “fat cat” celebrities, athletes and entertainers follow suit with donations of their own cash, rather than just offering to do free (promotional) performances for charity? My beef with them is that most keep all their enhanced-profits related to those free performances in after-event sales of their wares (like music downloads and big-ticket performances). Being a celebrity is all about promotion and they get more bang-for-the-buck when they do it in association with charitable causes. I do not disparage the incredible efforts of some celebrities like Bono to make a huge difference in the world of charity and they should be highly-commended.

Celebrities are known tax evaders, and it would help the tax-base of many countries like the UK, France and Germany if they would move back home from Monte Carlo and other tax havens. Or how about reporting hidden Swiss and other offshore bank accounts too? Countless American and European celebrities living in the UK have avoided UK income taxes on offshore investment accounts. Not until last year did the UK require a new 30,000 pound flat tax to avoid worldwide taxation on offshore investment accounts. For some very rich celebrities, isn’t that a small price to pay for offshore accounts going forward?

It was just last year in London, while the new congestion tax was being debated, that Madonna ranted against this green-friendly idea. "Public transport is rubbish - says Madonna, the chauffeur-driven pop diva" at
http://www.dail*****.co.uk/tvshowbi...--says-Madonna-chauffeur-driven-pop-diva.html "I would make it so that aspiring musicians wouldn't have to pay the congestion charge, or pay taxes" she (Madonna) told Q magazine.” America’s infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde did not hail from castles like some of these UK-based celebrities do.

This whole Robin Hood tax plan makes little sense and its oddball and troublesome, to taxpayers, governments, and serious officials working hard to find global consensus for solving important global problems. Most taxpayers in the world are happy to donate personal monies and services to Haiti relief and plenty of other laudable charities too – even if they are strapped for cash themselves. What’s especially nice about charity is that it’s not a tax; rather you can donate to the charities of your choice that match your values best.

 

Just a reminder not to post direct links to the enemy. Break the links up so they aren't clickable.

 

There are tons of Google results already for Bill Nighy and taxes, or Richard Curtis video. I think this campaign will get lots of media attention.

Global charities, progressives, the green movement and climate change people are very frustrated and they are especially upset at banks for messing up global finances in their view and demanding all the attention and money from governments - putting their needs last on the totem pole. They will channel all that anger, effort and focus on this campaign. Be ready for an onslaught.

In my view, we need to battle them head-on. Call them out on jumping-the-line, being like demanding kids not getting enough attention while more important 'save the financial and economical world issues' are dealt with first - and that includes repairing (not hurting and punishing) banks.

Governments will consider them a distraction and interference. But we still need to defend our position in the court of public opinion. We are winning this battle overall and this last ditched-effort by the odd-man out here must be squashed with authority in my view.

 

Let's see if this UK-based campaign comprising 48 UK-based charities and UK celebs hits our side of the pond like the Beatles or a dud. No WSJ or NYTimes as of tonight. Did just see businessweek/bloomberg UK just ran it. I think it's going to lauch in the US too. The US too but much weaker. Time will tell.

Their big-deal video is very hokey and embarrassing for a film director. We could easily parody it on YouTube. Corrupt charity guy and drunken celeb passing cash under the table to each other while pitching a new global tax to hard working taxpayers. Like verizon vs AT&T and cable vs verizon ads. Just exploring ideas.

 

NY Times has the story. Mainly it's all UK press though. I don't think it will make that big a splash here in the U.S.



http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=.../09/business/business-uk-britain-banktax.html

 

If anyone can get private domain name registration on ".org.uk" domains, you can grab TheRobinHoodTax.org.uk

Apparently it can't be done from the USA, otherwise it would've been mine already.

Maybe an anonymous Euro here will put on his green mask & with anonymity take it before the rich celebrities try to take more of the money from the weak & the poor via pass-thru taxation.

Is there a Robin Hood amongst us?

If so, don't reply back.

Robin Hood always worked in total secrecy.

 

If politics weren't at their current stage, I would be quite afraid...Surprisingly no coverage in the french newspapers.

It will be really annoying in the next few months. I just hope Michael Moore doesn't come along with his new film on Wall Street, you have seen what happened to Irak war and NRA after his movies... Uh in deed, nothing...LOL