Good to see the articles to keep us apprised of the situation. The good thing is that this is not definate in Germany only something that might come up on the manifesto also the article states that Merkels government is way ahead in the polls so thats nice to hear as well. Frankfurt is trying to be up and coming financial center, if they do this tax they will be handing money over to other countries. Just like the us would if we had the tax. There is always talk of this tax in hard times usually brought up my the real left leaning. They can bring in some more SEC fees like they charge now those fees arent so bad, but like I think John Mack said in the grilling from Barney Frank, that it would be looked at sure, but it would also take away alot of business and be counter productive. I used to work as a broker and i had many clients with over a million dollar portfolios who were very cost conscious. So the guy from the ny times article who said tehe guy trading a few times a year would not care is dead wrong. The guy with a milliondollar portfoili who rebalances coast an extra 2500 for selling out of a position and 2500 for going into a new position. Thats crazy when people at this stage want lower then 9.99 commissions tell ok we can give ya 5 dollar commissions but becuase of this new tax its going to cost you 2500 extra each way. I do not see this passing. Lots of companies depend on trading and not just daytrading but wswing trading and invsting in general for there revenue , this wouldkill it. And tons more jobs gone!
Would love to see this thing repealed in UK, India before it comes up for serious congressional debate here.
So what, countries "mull" this shit all the time. A lot of other crap gets "mulled" as well, only not reported in the news.
Yeah crap gets mulled over usually from the very left leaning. In the case of the US it was Defazio, who is pretty out there anyways. So not worried until there is something to be worried about.
I am far away from being wild-eyed optimist but if I think about potential ramnification of trans.tax I can't see it happening. I am in Chicago and I can't imagine impact on this town's number one(so to speak) industry "futures trading". What would prevent Eurex from offering practically the same products like all the highly successful CME products less trans. tax? Would authorities then prevent U.S. citizens from trading foreign futures contracts to make U.S. futures "viable' somehow?? Theoretically they can do that but from point of view of international trade it would be politically very damaging and probably illegal. Argument against this might be the case of online poker. Americans lost all the legal cases in this matter at WTO court. (American bureaucrats don't give a shit anyway, by the way). But in case of futures it would be much more difficult and damaging. Another lesson from online poker. YOU CAN STILL PLAY!!!!!
The only way I can see this tax idea getting done would be if American government had enough "pull" with other governments and this tax would somehow become the "rule". The trouble there is, there's always some "maverick" exchange (Dubai?Singapore?) willing to take a chance and disrupt those kinds of socialistic plans.
I agree but fortunately I think there are too many of us to really get along If they manage to create successful world government the game would definitely be over. Reminds me "ROAD TO SERFDOM" from Hayek.
In short the bid ask on most instruments would be far more than a whole year's interest on A, BB debt.... Secondly, an increase in costs would negate the direct access electronic exchanges' progress in lowering transaction costs and reducing the bid ask spread.... Any sort of tax would bring in even fewer players and make economic conditions even worse.... Just because Republicans blew it does not mean the Democrats will solve it.... Surely the Democrats are not this stupid....