.. because if he is, I see a transaction tax coming. Remember, Summers is the one who wrote "When Financial Markets Work Too Well: A Cautious Case For a Securities Transactions Tax"
The current Mr. Treasury just put in - this is not a joke - the former head of Risk Management at Bear Stearns as a senior VP for the $700B thing (not a joke). By the time Obama's pick takes the reins it'll all be over anyway.
You're 100% correct. If every trader here isn't scared to their core, then they truly don't understand the ramifications of a transaction tax.
Nearly every trader here is unprofitable, and so they don't care too much regardless. Most of them cannot understand the ramifications either, so you're not going to see to many people get worked up.
It's just unbelievable that traders would be punished while CEO's that caused this are getting absurd amounts of money to bankrupt the financial sector.
what would be the end result if this does happen? would this only affect american citizens or traders anywhere in the world?
This paper your referring to was written about (2) decades ago. Summers was recently asked about a transaction tax again in a conde naste article. Here is a quote from him in that article: When I asked Summers about transaction taxes, he replied that he has rethought his position from two decades earlier: âI have become convinced that in the world of today, because of globalization, derivatives, and other institutional changes, it is probably not realistic to collect significant revenue from turnover taxes. I also have become more convinced than I was years ago of the importance of maintaining liquidity.â Sounds like he has come to his senses... Let's just hope the everyone else does to. -Guru
Great find guru, I did know that he changed his stance a little bit during the Clinton administration.
Here is a link to the entire article if anyone hasn't seen it yet. http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/wall-street/2008/09/18/Advocating-Tax-on-Stock-Trading#page1 -Guru