Tobin tax on currency trading

[idlisambar]

Poll question: Tobin tax on currency trading

Good idea?
(For some background -- http://attac.org.uk/attac/html/view-category.vm?categoryID=78)

[papau]

1. One gets tired of zero rated financial transactions

:-)

[oecher3]

2. alright,

if it helps to smoke out people speculating on currencies and keeping them from creating a currency crisis, good.
Here is some good article as well, I knew I had seen my argument somewhere flaud...
man I am getting rusty! <:D>

http://www.parc-jp.org/parc_e/Articles%20&%20Views/David2sympo.html

[stevebreeze]

3. buy an HP computer pay sales tax buy 1000 shares of HP stock no tax

just ain't fair...like most of our tax system.

we need to return to progressive taxation. To so so we need campaign finance reform. What the wealthy and the corporate have concentrated on when buying more then their share of democracy has been less tax burden for them and more for working people.

[BraSize45]

4. Steve knows the difference between a purchase and an investment!

I'm sure you have a clue about the difference between the purchase of a finished good, and the purchase of 1000 shares of a corporation, so I'll truncate my snide reply and move on to reading other messages.

[German-Lefty]

5. Naahh, don't think it'll fly

From the paper:
"However, in today’s 24-hour global marketplace, foreign exchange traders can hide positions by shifting them between branches in different time zones and so always remain within working hours, or they can use derivative financial instruments that do not show on balance sheets (Garber, 1998). Finally, traders can avoid the foreign exchange market altogether by buying and exchanging securities, such as bonds or treasury bills, denominated in different currencies (Garber and Taylor, 1995)."

I don't think you could do this or would want to. It's one thing to tax speculative positions (or just no ensure them). It's something else to try to tax every transaction. Another thing a government can do to crush speculation is jump in the exchange market and punish them. If the euro goes to high the ECB can sell some, and once it's low buy them back. A speculator stands no chance against the printing press.