If they kill the stocks the futures will follow. I sure as heck hope they never do this idiotic tax. For one thing it will reduce trading so dramatically that it won't result in much revenue. I still think it's a long shot, so much New York and Chicago [BO's home town] money comes from trading. It's going to be the podunk politicians that are for it and they will use it to pressure the politicians from the financial centers...
It's really scary. On the surface you wouldn't think this had a chance to pass but were in crazy times were people are angry and the avg guy on the street wants to blame somebody and wall street is it. Its tough to plan for the future as this will shut any type of active trading down overnight. yes one can hold but that implies huge risk and big $'s in your account
I would like to I ask all those affected by the proposed stock transaction tax to kindly lend their names to our common cause and present some alternative tax ideas, such as the one presented below (with any changes you find necessary) to your favorite pressure group, including possibly: - The nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform: http://www.allhealth.org/aboutus_mission.asp http://www.allhealth.org/contact_info.asp - your Congressperson: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml - Barack Obama's feedback site (ideas may not be forwarded anymore): http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy - The GovTrack website for the H.R. 676 bill (questions may not be forwarded): http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-676 To fund health reform, tax sugar and other obesity-causing substances, rather than stock market volume Health Care reform can be funded by an anti-obesity tax. Imposed on something with billions in annual revenue (candies sales alone are $20+ billon a year), and with a highly inelastic demand curve (just as in case of other addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco, etc.), making fiscal revenues very predictable. Why not make the food industry pay for the health-care costs of the nation-wide food addiction they created? A virtuous circle is possible here - any drop in 'empty calories' and sodium consumed will simultaneously ease the burden on the US Health Care by cutting obesity and sodium related deseases: type-II diabetes, hypertension, hearth attacks, etc., at the same time raising funds for curing the remaining patients. It is an intuitive tax in the context of health reform, politically more than welcome, compatible with the image of the 'caring' government, rather than a vindictive one - why not forgive Wall Street, rather than punishing it with a non-sequitur stock and bonds transactions tax injected into the US National Health Care Act (h111-676, sect. 211, phrase: 'Instituting a small tax on stock and bond transactions'). Ideally all obesity-causing addictive substances should be taxed (e.g. with a higher VAT rate, which can take effect almost immediately, rather than next fiscal year), including those three groups most widely abused by food manufacturers: 1) sugary substances with high glycemic index per 100 grams (corn syrup, maltose, starch, glucose, saccharose, etc), added to most drinks and foodstuffs, including salty ones, such as pickled foods and salad dressings, creating a rapid burst of energy, quickly (in a matter of hours) followed by a rapid return of hunger (glucose craving), when the brain becomes starved of glucose following highly elevated insuline levels (which quickly metabolizes carbs into body fat); sugar consumption also leads to insuline resistance in body cells similar to the tolerance effect known from drug addictions, 2) addictive emulsifiers (lecithin, choline) which target and desensitize the same brain receptors as niccotine, added to many products, especially chocolates, creams, cakes, but also pizzas, salad dressings, and even beer; lecithin/choline also produces resistance to the neurotransmitter acetylholine (to which it metabolizes) in brain cells much like niccotine addiction, and is hardly irreplaceable as an emulsifier (fair trade chocolate producers use a mechanical process called blending to obtain similar texture, while non-addictive, cheap alernatives such as baking soda can be used elsewhere), 3) high doses of sodium (mostly in the form of kitchen salt), added to many drinks and virtually all foodstuffs, including sweet ones, profiting from the behavioral instinct of land species to consume as much salt as possible to prevent sodium deficiency, phenomenon known for decades and hence widely abused by food manufacturers. Here are some of the data sources and articles on the subject of food addiction and obesity: 1) The obesity epidemic: (transcript from an interview with Dr Robert Lustig), URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm 2) The Obesity Epidemic in the United States - Gender, Age, Socioeconomic, Racial/Ethnic, and Geographic Characteristics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis, URL: http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/1/6 3) USDA Database for the Added Sugars Content of Selected Foods, Release 1, URL: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=12107 4) USDA Database for the Choline Content of Common Foods, Release 2 (2008), URL: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=6232 5) Sugar, choline, and sodium content in processed foods by various US manufacturers, URL: http://www.nutritiondata.com (the website is based on USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Rev. 21, URL: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8964 ) 6) Choline is a Selective Agonist of alpha-7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in the Rat Brain Neurons (article on choline/lecithin addictiveness), URL: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119175390/abstract 7) Hunger for Salt Found to be Powerful Instinct, URL: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E4D71E39F93AA3575BC0A965948260
I hope they have the sense to know that if the tax were to pass they would not only put thousands or millions of people out of work, but the tax revenue they are predicting would not even be close. If there were this tax the stock market would shut down to virtually no liquidity and no volume. How about they tax the banks who are getting the TARP money? That would of course only make sense.
Greece may replace 0.15 percent stamp tax with a 10% gains tax in April if not postponed again: Feb. 27 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8379050 Philippines have abolished stamp tax, considered to be double taxation, still have trans tax: Feb. 3 http://businessmirror.com.ph/index....dary-trading-nixed&catid=33:economy&Itemid=60
How about a transaction tax (.25%) added to the purchase price of all real estate the cost of which can easily be folded into the long term costs of such purchases? Make those who REALLY caused these problems pay for it's costs to repair. After all, it was the idiot fucking over-leveraged nurses and waitresess and landscapers who found a way to buy a house with no money down that did this to the country.
Instead of being used as an example of irresponsibility, they are being paraded around as being the victims of ''evil stock speculators'' as they like to say.
I am in disgust and fear about our economic future, family as well as country. But I agree, some (alot) of blame needs to be put on people who couldn't put First, Last and Cleaning deposit on a 2 bedroom apartment were closing home loans. Checkout Kaboomstocks at [www.kaboomstocks.com/fourm/