Math_Wiz, nope, self-employed don't get unemployment insurance. Makes you wonder about the unemployment figure, huh?
Anybody noteworthy added? I don't recognize any of those names. It seems like this has died down again (hopefully for good). -Guru
Don't know how many people are reading this guy's blog, but it is Newsweek. He is simply parroting the ecommunist Dean Baker with no concern of the real consequences. Bloggy needs to be reeducated. These stupid bloggers make me mad. There are too many ignorant words being typed. Time for each word to be taxed. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/weal...09/04/13/is-the-financial-sector-too-big.aspx
You are aware that DeFazio's proposal is in effect a 1% tax on a round turn transaction: .25% tax when you bought, .25% when seller sold it to you, .25% when you sold it, .25% when buyer bought it from you. With this current proposal, each side would pay the tax, not just you.
Your comments are needed here folks. Enter them at the bottom of the page. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2009/04/why-dont-we-tax-the-buying-and.html
What did you expect from an organization like PBS? Corporations and big business - BAD! BAD! (This comment funded by the Exxon Corportation)
This is part of the schill "reader's" question: "Surely, someone who is spending $1,000 can afford a tax of $10. What, if anything, does the buying and selling of stocks currently contribute to the GNP? Or the GDP?" My thoughts are: (1) Surely, journalists who publish ideas in nationally read publications make more money than they need. We need a WORD TAX. That's right, a 10-cent-per-WORD TAX on those who derive income from sitting around, producing nothing tangible. Besides, 10 cents is nothing, right?? (2) This "reader" is so ill-informed he/she doesn't even know how this country measures economic growth; GNP has been dead for how long?? (3) This reader probably does not exist.
Perhaps opposing views are not allowed as I posted 6+ hours ago around 9 or 10 am. Paul Solman: You have no idea, I imagine, just how deep and timely your idea is. (oh what a perfect time it is) Paul Solman: The subject is the overly volatile U.S. stock market of the 1930s, mind you,.... (Solman omits the fact that there was a trans tax that started out at 0.2% in 1914 and more than doubled in the 1930's.) Solman: The idea was mentioned just the other day by economist Dean Baker, sometimes featured on this page and the NewsHour. "A nice little financial transactions tax like the one they have in the U.K. on stock trades may go far toward bringing i[nvestment] bank salaries more in line with what teachers earn." (Well, I think the garbage man should make as much money as a brain surgeon. Blah blah.)