WOW! If the Deustche Boerse takeover of NYSE goes go through, all NYSE trades will pay any German Financial Transaction Tax. In other words, NYSE would be DEAD http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120114-700886.html KIEL, Germany (Dow Jones)--Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel Saturday found backing from her party to introduce a financial transaction tax within the euro zone if it is impossible to launch it in the European Union as a whole. The plan was agreed to at a meeting of her conservative Christian Democratic Union here in northern Germany. "We will aim for a quick introduction of a financial transaction tax," said the so-called Kiel Declaration, which outlines the party's road map for the rest of the year. "The tax should be shaped in a way that the interest of Germany's financial centers will be maintained." The introduction in the euro zone alone should be a first step to be followed by efforts to get the EU as a whole and also the U.S. later on board, the declaration said. The plan is that the tax must be paid once one of the parties involved in a financial transaction is based in a country where the tax will be applied. Merkel told reporters it is now important to see whether there is the chance that a proposal by the European Commission will find backing on the level of European finance ministers or the heads of EU leaders. But Merkel's plan was also criticized within her own party over fears that Germany's main financial center, Frankfurt, will see capital fleeing to the City of London. The plan has also been opposed by the Free Democratic Party junior coalition partner. Lawmaker Michael Fuchs of Merkel's CDU said at the party conference that introducing such a tax only on continental Europe and not in the U.K. would be wrong because this could be a boosting program for the City of London. "It would be necessary for the Brits to join in," Fuchs told reporters. "The Englishmen must display European solidarity because otherwise they would get into a splendid isolation, which they should prevent." --By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-30-2888-4126, andrea.thomas@dowjones.com
It's amazing. Germany will now augment its stranglehold on manufacturing with a stranglehold on financial services by strangling London and now NY with its F.T.T. And the dupes in both countries just snooze away. As metaphor, "While England Slept" by Winston Churchill is as timely today as it was when he penned it in 1938.
NDAA was passed so a transaction tax on trades is nothing for the scum running this country - EU first - US just ahead!
So much for my dreams of living in Germany and trading there... :/ Well, maybe I can still do it with an offshore account. But regardless, this is silly.
The idea is to force the FTT onto UK and US through regulatory subterfuge. The ongoing UK/EU fandango is well-documented. The NYSE situation is far sneakier. Basically, NYSE/Deustche Boerse would be required to levy a transaction fee equivalent to the German FTT levied on each transaction. The proceeds would go to Berlin. Absolutely no US regulatory involvement. Clever.
The political class is out of control. We have physicists, ex school teachers and god knows what else writing and playing games with critical policy's in complex fields well out of range of there expertise. One person facing an election can twist and do untold damage to all the systems needed by the population, for no reason more than they want extra votes to maintain there position. I really don't like politics and only show an interest when there's something on the cards that will have a direct effect upon me, why don't I like politics? The Euro crisis pantomime of the last 12 months is a classic example, not only do we have two unskilled unqualified MUPPET'S running around the world like some secret agents on a mission to save the earth, we actually have the rest of the world following there every move and giving them legitimacy, banks are to big to fail, they say, well how about politics? It would seem that is the biggest to big to fail, as every time it does a good percentage of the populations involved get hammered, entire nations go bankrupt or worse to war,which has bought death to hundreds of millions. Watching, reading or listening to main stream politics gives me a numb feeling, the sheer importance of what is going on and the absolute inadequacy of those granted the trust to do it actualy makes me siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.
There is a ZERO percent chance that the US will allow Germany to impose anything like this on US securities regardless of who owns the NYSE. Even the Dems wouldn't want to allow that to become a political issue in the 2012 elections and after that it's a moot point, as the Republicans will likely control both houses of congress, and it's a coin flip on the Presidency.