1. Smaller maybe but no joke. As I put it in my analogy a transaction tax on bets made in Vegas would likely turn it back into a desert. 2. Who benefitted first and foremost from all the financial shenanigans of the past couple of decades? Answer: Americans. The house prices of recent years were obscene. 7 fat years. 7 lean years. The bill now is gigantic but so was the partying excess. The current large tab is the natural consequence.
This is just not true. For every buyer, there is a seller. If you lost money, someone else made money. Stocks aren't zero sum, that's true, but look at an example. What you're saying is that if a stock goes up from $10 to $20, and there are 10 shares outstanding, if all people holding the 10 shares bought at $10 and sold at $20, the total cap gains is $100. However, if 9 of the people held from $10 to $20, but one sold at $13 to a trader, that trader lost because at that point the stock decided to wiggle, dipped to $12, and he cut his loss, well, another "investor" bought the stock at $12 and held to $20. Net capital gains is the *same* when you do the math. It doesn't change. What does change is the government's revenue from the capital gains (it's higher when short term losing traders are present). In the short term, it goes up, because the winners have to pay taxes on *all* of their gains each year. The losers only get to deduct $3k. Heck, some of the losers won't ever get to deduct all of their losses in their lifetime at that rate (when that occurs, the government has definitely won from there being losers).
Just wanted to clear up a few things. In the above post you mentioned that this transaction tax is currently being considered for the new stimulus plan - I believe that is incorrect. I have seen nothing that indicates that this is the case. Everything I've read seems to indicate this could come into play further down the road (I read 2010 being mentioned at the earliest). But we must remember that this is just a few journalists and economists pumping the issue at the current time. Also you point out the paper that Larry Summers wrote 20 some years ago. I would just say that Summers has sinced changed his stance on the transaction tax (so it would seem he's on our side). Let's just hope he has Obama's ear on this issue if it comes down to it... -Guru
Summers is also one of Obama's top economic advisers, and he has changed his viewpoint on this. Summers firmly opposes a financial transactions tax from being implemented. I think we all need to calm ourselves on this issue, as the odds of something like this passing are very unlikely.
well let's see now.......cows breaking wind......dems will impose tax of $150.00 per dairy cow, only $75.00 per range cow/per year.....or one time tax? Now, the stock transaction tax........the guy who started this forum says "i voted for obama" but God help us?????????? No, God help you, maybe, he has already helped me to understand that higher taxes are coming .....and all you can do now is set back and wait.....unless you have a cattle operation for write offs...Ouch! Obama is a promoter of same old stuff........abortion and gay marriage...God blesses neither of those .....where do we sink to from here?